


She Is My Sanity

by SpideyPool504



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, BAMF Katniss Everdeen, Character Death, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dark Peeta Mellark, F/M, Falling In Love, Finnick Odair Lives, Finnick Odair POV, Finnick is a Head Over Heels, Fluff, Forced Prostitution, Forced Relationship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Johanna Is A Good Bro, Manipulation, NOT Peeta friendly, POV First Person, Pet Names, Protective Finnick Odair, Protective Gale Hawthorne, Romance, Sugar Cubes, Survivor Guilt, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2020-08-13 07:41:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20170624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpideyPool504/pseuds/SpideyPool504
Summary: What if Annie didn't survive her games and win the heart of Finnick Odair? What if Finnick sees something in Katniss that not many can? What if Finnick was determined to meet our secretly terrified spark? And if he ignites something inside her that sets everyone around the world ablaze? What if she sets HIM ablaze?This is a Finniss story. It is not Peeta friendly, for all my Peeta lovers.





	1. Prologue

WHAT IF?

What if Annie didn't survive her games and win the heart of Finnick Odair? What if Finnick sees something in Katniss that not many can? What if Finnick was determined to meet our secretly terrified spark? How will the Girl On Fire react to the infamous Finnick Odair when he offers his advice? And if he ignites something inside her that sets everyone around the world ablaze? 

How will all of this effect the story we all know? Can Finnick really find a way to get her inner flames to billow out and touch us all? And what about the little shit called Peeta? Will he through a wrench into the plan Finnick has cooked up in his head? Will Finnick just duck tape him to a chair and glue his lips shut to keep him from messing with his Firefly's head? 

WAR

The Girl On Fire. Well that's a title now isn't it? The thing is she's hated it with a "burning" passion since the beginning. See what I did there? No? Okay, moving on then. But my Firefly hated the title the world labeled her with. It reminded her entirely to much of her first games that she narrowly escaped with that shit stain Peeta. You're lucky to survive with all your limbs intact if you call her that nowadays. 

War changed everyone. Me, Hay, Jo, Cash, Gale. But nothing compared to how it changed Katniss. My little Bug wasn't fazed with much of what happened during war. She just made sure that anything done during war, was done with a purpose. At least as much as she could control. What she couldn't control , controlled her. She always felt she was responsible for every and anything that happened. It wasn't true of course, but she's so damn stubborn. 

Everyone thought that every loss and backfire made her more fragile. They couldn't have been more wrong. Snow had taken her tears that were caught on camera and tried to twist it as a symbol of defeat. Little did her know that tears rolling down her face were nothing but pure, unadulterated fury and rage. To be completely honest, if Prim hadn't had been reaped all those years ago, the games would have went on for years upon years longer. Without the Everdeens we'd still be living with our heads bowed and our tails between our legs. Would have never had the courage and determination Katniss showed us we had within us or the intelligence Prim showed us even the youngest of minds held. 

HIS LOVE

My Everdeens are magically beautiful people. Prim, the sweet little rose, with the kindest of hearts has always been the driving force behind my Bug and the reason we all held it together. If it weren't for Prim we all would have died. Without her voice carrying through the hallways of district 13 lifting our spirits just the slightest. Without her "hell beast of a cat" as katniss calls him entertaining us in that bunker. Without Primrose Everdeen we would have all went crazy and lost our minds. 

Katniss on the other hand still doesn't see it. Doesn't see how much she helped the entirety of the cause. Didn't't see how she captured the Capitol with her simplistic beauty. The innocence and relatively unmarred innocence, as much as one could hold in the world we lived in. The beauty she has within her that even the Capitol could detect. My little Bug went to the inside of volcanoes for vacations, that's how much my love has been through. I wish I could have saved her from all of it. Wish I could have kept her and Prim from the hellish nightmare they've lived through. 

But the second little Prim was reaped there was nothing more I could do, even though their nightmare began well before that. I could only help my Everdeens by silently guiding Kat.

But more of this later. I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Finnick Odair. My love, life, and wife used to be known as Katniss Everdeen. She, our children and my adopted daughter, Primrose, now wear my last name with pride and love. 

Let me tell you how all of this came to be. It's quite the story to tell your grandchildren.


	2. Chapter One - Blue Dress

The first time I saw her, she was in a blue dress. It was dusted black and grey with holes along the bottom of it. Her hands and face had the same dusting of grey and black. The permanent dusting that covered everyone in District 12 ever present no matter how much they scrubbed. They always looked filthy but it wasn't their fault. They were always so quiet and had their heads bowed unless forced otherwise. All resigned that they were going to die either in mines or from the black lungs they were all but born with. No one in District 12 ever made a sound outside of silent crying and whimpering, especially not on Reaping day. 

So why was this girl running from the back of the herd of older young people? Did I miss something? My jaw drops when I hear the words "I volunteer as tribute" scream out in the silent crowd. Who was this girl? Who's place was she taking? With my female tribute trying to grope me non stop and my male tribute asking question after question about everything and nothing, I couldn't hear what was being said about District 12. Seeing as my tributes could care less about the history being made, I left them to find peace in my room on the train. I turned the Reaping on and only caught the last few minutes of it, I'd have to wait till we reached the Tribute Center to re watch the whole thing and understand what's actually going on. 

Pulling me from my thoughts was clip of what had just happened. Looking closely at the screen, I see a small girl clinging to the woman in the blue dress. The desperation and anguish in her voice making my heart hurt. The woman in the blue dress looked across the sea of young men at the back of the crowd and he's instantly jogging over to pick up and drag off the little girl kicking and screaming "NO! Don't do this!" The boy that dragged the little girl off looked close to tears, shocked at what just happened and furious, just like everyone else in the crowd. She must be important to the community. 

If she's so important to them then why is she volunteering? 

She slowly made her was to the stage. At first she was slack jawed, seemingly surprised at what had just happened. When she made her was to the steps of the stage was was stiff. Rigid and statuesque. You couldn't tell much from her expressions, or lack thereof I should say, but her eyes. My god her eyes were ablaze with emotions. You could see the fury and sadness in her eyes from a mile away. But it was only there for just a moment, then it was gone just as fast as it had appeared. Putting on a stone cold face. 

The brightly colored escort hadn't stopped yelling since the whole debacle had started. She asks the girl for her name and the camera can barely catch the "Katniss Everdeen" the girl in blue mutters out. 

"Everdeen? So big sister to the Everdeen I just selected?" the escort chirps out. The only reply she gets is a glare, and it startles the bright pink escort bad enough to have her back up a foot. "Okay, well on to the boys." Just before the brightly colored escort plucks out a tribute name, the girl in blue, Katniss, shuts her eyes and you see her mouth moving. No words come out but it looks like she's saying a prayer. Asking for a higher being to prevent something. I wonder what she's saying, asking for, trying to prevent. The fiery girl's eye fly open as the name "Peeta Mellark" is screeched through the intercom system. 

If it's even possible, she looks even more tense than before. Her eyes start to scan the crowd and her eyes stop at the boy that had taken her sister off her leg. It looks like he's about to move and say something, but with a barely there shake of her head and stare down between the two he stops. He takes his place back in line and they continue to stare at each other, it seems like they're having a silent conversation. When they seem to finish their conversation, he nods and then drops to his knee beside a small boy that looks to be a miniature copy of himself. "They've got to be siblings" I think to myself. The young boy is crying and clinging to the little girl that had yet to stop screaming and crying. 

A telephone beside my bed startles me from my focus on the events unfolding on the television, and I launch myself towards it, knowing my consequences if I miss the call. I put on my smoothest and most suave and out together voice I could muster and answered with,"Finnick Odair at your service. How may I be of pleasure?" To my utter disgust it was one of my most regular clients that always calls me the second the games get set into motion for the year. I listen to her babble and at the end of our one-sided conversation I purr out," I'll be sure to come to you as soon as possible darling" to her and say goodbye before hanging up. I run my hands across my face and shiver briefly at the disgust I feel at myself. I turn back to the TV just to see that the reaping was over. I'll have to wait and watch the recaps later. 

Till then I sigh and throw myself back on the bed and close my eyes, hoping to get a least a little bit of sleep. This was going to be a long day.

Later when we reached the Tribute Center I ran into Johanna Mason. After Jo won her games she was "offered" the same deal I was. To become one of his prostitutes or he'll slaughter the people you love. Unfortunately she tried to call his bluff and he had her watch her entire family be executed in front of her. 

We need to put an end to Snow's reign of horror. Haymitch from Twelve has been working on a plan ever since he won his games and lost all those close to him. For twenty-four years he's been coming up with and tweaking this plan of his. Every year saying that it's not the right time and that we can move yet or we'll fail before we even start. Mitch better have a damn good plan, I hate having my family and friends is constant peril and almost certain demise. 

"Hey Fishbrains." Jo calls over to me from across the lobby filled with tributes and mentors alike. She pushed her way through the crowd in a literal fashion and plants herself directly in front of me, leaving a wake of upset voices.

"Hey Mason! It's been so long since I've seen you half pint." I embrace her and chuckle as she squirms slightly at the tight embrace. I know she hates to be touched but she also knows I crave friendly touch. It's not often that I get it. 

"If you value your baby makers I suggest you back the hell up." I swiftly "back the hell up" as suggested knowing full well that the threat was more of a promise.

"Okay. Okay, put the claws away, no need to maime me. By the way id you watch the Reaping?" I ask with wide eyes. 

"No. Why? What happened? Someone pass out? I bet it was Ten." She smirks straightening out her leather jacket and pushing her medium length blonde hair back behind her ear. 

I chuckle and shake my head. "No. It was Twelve. Someone volunteered." Her eyes got comically big, her jaw dropping at the news. "I know. Crazy shits going on over there."

"Maybe we can ask Hay what's going on. You know how he's got a hand in almost everything." She points out. 

"Yeah but he's drunk off his ass like 99% of the time. Can hardly ever get a coherent sentence out of him." She nods and looks down, probably trying to think of a different way to get the information needed. When she looks up to tell me something she does a double take at something behind me. I scrunch my eyebrows and turn around to see what's got Jo stunned to silence and my eyes go wide and my jaw goes slack. "Is that?" I trail off, never finishing my sentence, still not believing what I'm seeing. 

"Haymitch Abernathy sober? Yeah. Yeah, that's what you see alright. What the fuck is going on in Twelve?" Jo takes the question right out my mouth. 

Once we get over our initial astonishment I yell over to him just as he drops off Katniss and his boy tribute to their prep rooms. When he gets over to me and Jo, I ask him ,"What the hell Mitch? What in Poseidon's name is going on in your district?" 

"Everdeen." That's the only answer we get before he's pushing past us to get to the elevators near by. Jo and I glance at each other and then turn and run to the elevators trying to make it in before Hay can shut the doors on us. We just barely make it in with him and he sighs knowing that we won't leave till we get an actual answer. "Fine, but not here. This place is crawling with ears and littered with eyes," he growls out to us. We nod and follow him up to his floor.

When we get to his floor we go to his room and pile into his bathroom. Then he starts his explanation. 

"Katniss Everdeen. I've told y'all about her and her little family before but here's a bigger story. She is a damn saint in Twelve. She feeds the majority of us and helps literally everyone she comes into contact with that needs it. It's how she was raised." Adoration and pride seeping out his voice. "Her dad was my best friend." His voice drops to a sad tone and his eyes get misty for a moment before it clears up and he continues his story, Jo and I don't interrupt him a single time, knowing he needs to get it out. 

"When I refused Snow I never knew he was would go so far as to target them also. He killed Rich a year after he killed my family and my girl. Just when I thought I could somehow live life somewhat sober he went a killed him and left all three Everdeen girls to fend for themselves. I guess when he figured out she had survived all this time and was stronger than he thought, he went after her little sister. Thought that if he put her in it would break both me and her at the same time. Would destroy her, and in turn the rest of the district would collapse." He shakes his head this. "I'm willing to bet my best whiskey that he didn't see this coming." He chuckles lightly, bitterly, then looks up to us with absolute determination. "She has to win. Period. If she doesn't come back, everyone back home is basically dead. Her best friend Gale is like her right hand man but he's not even a fraction of the person she is. If it were up to him, I know not a single piece of their hunts would go into the community for free or close too it. He'd only worry about his family and say 'fuck all' to everyone else." He ends bitterly. 

"I'll help you however I can. Hate to say it but my tributes aren't making it far this year." Jo speaks up after a few moments. I nod and second her statement and offer. 

"My girl might make it past the cornucopia but I don't think my boy is making it far." I shrug, numb to the amount of death I've been around since my games. After a few seconds I smirk and say to Hay,"I'd really love to meet her." I've heard about her from a few times in the past few years, but no ones met her or seen her till today. Well didn't know it was her till today. 

Hay nods and smirks. Right eyebrow raised he says, "Alright. But watch out though. She's a saint but she's got hellfire running through her. Almost took off a few of my fingers on the way over here, Effie is terrified of her." That must be the bright pink escort from her district. "You should have seen the train after we left." He shakes his head, eyes wide. "Either way, get the hell out. I need to piss." 

Jo and I grimace and make out way out as fast as we can maneuver, the door slamming shut behind us. We make our way down to where the chariots are being set up. Mentors and tributes are starting to flood in and line up next to their respective chariots. Jo leaves me, heading towards her tributes, with a promise to talk later. 

I scan the floor filled with tributes, victors, mentors, and stylists. While looking for my tributes, honestly I was, my eyes catch onto Katniss by her chariot. She's talking to someone that looks relatively normal, I wonder if that's her stylist. I heard about a new one joining the team, but I didn't expect him to be so normal. Almost everyone that lives in the Capitol has some kind of body modification. The ones that don't are labeled as "blank" by Capitol standards. Even some Victors change their appearances after they've won their games. 

Stopping my train of thought before I got too distracted, I start to make my way towards Katniss. The closer I got to her the more I saw how gorgeous she was. She's not the supermodel type of stunning, like really skinny and have a cake faced with makeup. When I get right up to both Katniss and her stylist, neither of them notice me, both engrossed in their conversation. When I get my first real look at her, I realize that she's never going to fit into a type. She's something all her own. They really broke the mold with her. 

As I try to think of what to say, my hands start to quake slightly, so I look around to find something to keep them busy. Finding the tray of sugar cubes next to the horses, I take a handful and pop one into my mouth and start to chomp down. I love these thing, back home I've got a whole cabinet dedicated to to boxes of these things. They're addictive. 

I slowly step back to Katniss and her stylist, still without them noticing, and read they stylists name tag. "Cinna" it reads. Not a district name but not a Capitol name either, continuing to crunch on my sugar cubes lost in thought. I guess the crunch of the sugar cubes was a little loud because I notice that they're stopped talking and have turned their attention to me. I stop chewing and give a meek half smile.

"Yes Mr. Odair? May I help you?" Cinna asks me as politely as can be. I look between the two of them and lose every single thought I've had in the past ten minutes. This doesn't happen to me. I'm Finnick Odair for crying out loud. I'm the one that makes others speechless, not the other way around!

"Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." It's the only thing running through my mind right now. "Say something dumb ass!" I finally shake my head "no" and Cinna seems to take that as a real answer, even if it wasn't, and nods . He then comes to some kind of conclusion in his mind and tells Katniss that he'll see her later when she got back from the Chariot rides, that he had to go and speak with Haymitch about something. She nods and gives him a light hug, "Okay, and thank you again. For not dressing me in coal dust." she clarifies at the end. 

Then it's just me and the infamous Katniss Everdeen. 

"Please don't let me fuck this up." is the last thing that goes through my mind before I open my mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! Let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts or scenes you might like to see in future chapters!
> 
> Till next time!
> 
> This has been your friendly neighborhood writer, SpideyPool504!


	3. Chapter Two - Meeting Her

I must look stupid because I'm just standing there staring at her. All I can think about is what Hay was telling Jo and I about her. She's an amazing person and she's just as gorgeous, which is just a bonus to be honest. She's truly breathtaking. 

Someone knocking on my forehead like a door pulls me from my thoughts. "Hello? Anyone in there?" Oh yeah. I was failing at talking to Katniss. 

"Sugar cube?" I offer my hand out to her, imploring her to take one. She shakes her to my offer and continues to stare. "Don't like them?" Her stare just gets more intense, looking to find... I don't even know. "What?" I ask after a moment of just her staring and me know knowing what to say.

"What do you want?" the accusatory tone of her voice throwing me off for a moment.

"I just asked if you wanted a sugar cube.." I trail off motioning towards the cubes of sugar, confused.

"Why are you talking to me? Trying to see if I'll slip and tell you something important and then go to blab it to everyone to make sure that your tributes have a better chance at making it easier to get your tributes out of this hell hole? Not happening." She starts stepping closer to me with rage and fire burning in her eyes. She's a whole foot shorter than me but I feel so small with her staring me down like this. Not going to lie, but it sends a shiver down my spine. "You're not getting anything. Not a damn thing." she hisses at me. Legitimately hissed at me. Such conviction in those eyes. She's made me feel so many things in such a short time. It's astounding and interesting. 

Hay wasn't joking. She really is a firecracker. 

"Okay Firefly." I smile inwardly as I see her eye twitch at the nickname. "I'm not looking for anything to screw you over with in the arena. I'm actually here to do my best to help you get out." I smirk at her shocked and questioning face. "I mean it. I know how much you need out of here, how much the entire district depends on you. I'll be working with Hay to help out in the arena as much as possible." I know she doesn't believe me and doesn't trust a word that's coming out of my mouth but that's okay. I have her trust sooner or later. Come hell or high water she's coming out of that arena. She looks like she wants to say something but I see her district partner making his way over to us angrily, so I cut her off before she gets the chance to shove her foot down my throat. I lean down to her ear and whisper,"I'll see you later little Firefly." She shivers, does her best to hide it, but I see it anyway. That's one point to Finn, and like three to Kat. I pop another sugar cube into her hand, closing her fingers around it, an olive branch you could call it. I slowly back away popping a sugar cube into my mouth and send her one last smile before turning and leaving. Letting out a breath of relief, I make my way to my tributes at the fourth chariot. That went better than I thought it was going to. Didn't go as expected but I don't think anything concerning her ever does. I mentally smile at that. 

I'm going to like doing everything I can to earn her trust. I think I'll be making a new best friend soon. 

My tributes are dressed as they are every year. Blue and green fabrics with a poofy mesh that makes it look like the tributes are swimming in sea foam. It doesn't work of course. It looks like an absolute mess. If these games are going to continue then we need a costume change. I finally make it over to my tributes and instantly my girl tribute, Nerissa, tries to glue herself to my side. It's pretty creepy and very irritating. I tell Ondine, my boy tribute to look confident even if he doesn't feel it, to put on a brave face. The poor fourteen year old looks scared out his mind, and I completely understand. He's too young to be faced with a fight to the death. I all but shove Nerissa off of me and walk away from her. Tabby, District Four's escort, can deal with her since I don't want Mags to have to deal with that bullshit. 

I head up the stairs to the Mentor's lounge, it's five floors up but I need the time to think. To go over the shit storm that comes with coming to the Capitol. 

I've got yet another obsessive tribute and one that's to young to be going through this shit. There's the Capitol Cunt that bought me for the night, who I've yet to go see and the more than multiple others that have lined up and pre bought me up until I leave back to my district. I truly dread life involving the Capitol. 

I drag my thoughts away from the horrors of my life, and onto more beautiful parts of it. My big sister, Meredith, is getting married in three months to a man that treats her like a queen. My mom, Amphitrite, is finally getting her restaurant up and running. It's always been a dream of hers to have one and she's finally getting it. All the staff and the menu are set to launch and the paperwork completed and in order. I'm so proud of her, she's worked so hard for it. 

And Katniss. The little Firefly. I know she lost her dad at a real young age, and that's nearly a death sentence in 12. For the provider of the family to pass leaves the family to starve to death and girls down there never make it long with the grotesque Peacekeepers that prey on the weak over there. On my Victory Tour and a few others with my far and few in between victor tributes, I could see the hungry looks they'd give the women and even little girls with dark hair and olive skinned malnourished bodies. I made me sick to my stomach every time I saw it, and it still turns my stomach everytime I even have a passing thought of the lower districts. I'd always want to get out of the district as soon as possible every time I was forced to go. 

Katniss would be the only reason I would stay there for longer than necessary. She's such a beautiful woman, inside and out. She's been through so much hell since a young age. She's raised her sister, and I'm sure multiple other children look to her as a mom or big sister. She's kept an entire district alive. She pulled off a miracle with keeping Haymitch alive, I know she had a hand in him not dying of alcohol poisoning. 

I hope that one day I can at least call her my friend. if not mine. I'd make sure she was never left wanting or needing anything again. I'd make sure that she felt safe, cared for, like she had someone she could always depend on to be there. Yep. She's going to be the death of me. I can see it now, I'll go to the ends of the earth for her, fight every Peacekeeper in the world, if it would make her happy. 

I finally make it to the Fifth floor, and glance around to see if I could spot Hay or Jo. Luckily I do quickly and I make my way to then and plop down in between them. 

Leaning close to Hay I whisper into his ear, "I spoke with the flame that's walking around." He snickers at me and makes a comment about me walking away without a scratch on me. "Almost didn't, but I think it went okay. I'm still alive thankfully." I comeback with. 

"What'd she do?" A now very interested Jo asks me. 

"Just know you two will be the best of friends." I whisper to her in a serious voice. We know who's coming out of that arena but the other victors don't, so it's best to keep my voice down when talking about the future. Jo just shrugs and turns back to the wall of TVs, all displaying a different angle and image. Those two are going to get on like two peas in a pod. It's terrifying to think that there will be two of them to gang up on me. "Fantastic" I think sarcastically but fondly. I look to the screen as the chariots start to roll out. 

Gloss and Cashmere get loud as their tributes roll out, both stating that they're most likely not making it out the arena. One's tributes look mean but they pale in comparison to Brutus and Enobaria's tributes in Two. The male tribute looks like he's been on steroids since the womb, I have all the faith in the world in my girl Kat but that walking steroid is going to give our girl trouble. And their female tribute? The bloodlust is visible in her eyes even through the TVs. She's going to give the Capitol slow and drawn out kills and they'll love it, the sadistic bitch. I don't pay much attention to the tributes from Three through Six. They're always dressed in the same exact costumes and always start from eager to kill to 'I don't want any part of this'. All you need is a glance to determine how long they're going to last in the arena. It's disgusting how everyone in this room, including myself, can categorize these children. 

"Jo, your tribs." Hay points out to her, but she just shrugs it off. I look to the screen and confirm the theory I had going in my head. Her tributes this year are 13 and 14. Jo doesn't like to watch the young tributes be paraded around like meat. None of us do, but for Jo it hits a nerve from her games when almost all the competing tributes were 14 and younger, with Jo being the oldest at 17. It was a pretty quick games that year. Jo tries to help her tributes but deep down we all know if our tributes are going to make it the moment they're reaped. 

When I come out of my thoughts, Eleven is rolling out and my heart clenches and shatters at the sight of the small mouse like 12 year old girl standing next to the house of a 17 year old boy. The baby hasn't even started her life yet and she's already being sentenced to death. Neither she nor her family deserve this bullshit. 

"You better have a good fucking plan, Hay. I can not go through another year of this." My voice shakes and cracks mid way as I whisper vehemently in his ear. 

"We get her out this year, then next year everything is brought to the fucking ground. I refuse to let her live the 'life' of a Victor or anymore of these babies die so horrifically. No one else needs to go through anything we've had too, or what you still go through." There's fire in his eyes that grow with every word he whispers to me. Twelve really is ready to burn the world to the ground.

"Go underdogs" I sarcastically think. 

I nod at what he promises me, and then I notice that the room was silent. I look around and see everyone crowding and staring at the TVs. "Damn." Gloss breathes out and it really turns my attention to what was going on, on the TVs. I push my way through to see what's happening, the closer I get the brighter the screens are. They're nearly blinding by the time I get to the front of the crowd. When I get my first real look at the screens, my stomach drops along with my jaw. 

She's on fire. She's full on engulfed in flames. And she's drop dead gorgeous. This Firebug needs to be protected at all costs, kept safe and treasured. She never should feel pain again in any form. I make a vow right there that to get her out of the arena, get her back home and keep her safe when she gets out. I'll make it my mission in life to make sure she's taken care of for the rest of her life. "That costume really matches her personality." I say under my breath, because I'll be damned if her soul isn't pure fire. 

Someone smacks the back of my head and my hand twitches for something to stab with, but I catch myself and come out of my mind, and undoubtedly embarrassing stance, all but drooling at the screen. I turn around to see everyone in the room staring at me and I wave at them.

"Hi! How are ya? Do you need something? How may I help? Do you need a picture to take home so you can continue to admire me after hours as well?" I ask them with my trademark 'Capitol smirk'. 

"I've already got one!" Cash calls out from across the room, hitting Gloss when he adds that she has 'more like a shine to be honest'. I shake my head and make my way to the elevators, with Hay and Jo following me, heading towards where the tributes are about to be. 

"Of course you do! Who doesn't now a days?" I ask sarcastically.

"The Firecracker doesn't." Hay helpfully whispers in my ear with a smirk on his face and chuckle in his voice. 

The tribute elevator shows up and all the Victors pile in. The Trib elevators are designed to be able to carry all 24 tributes and 12-16 Victors, depending on how many of us come that year. Everyone fits comfortably, but since it's so damn big it moves on the slow side. 

"I just hope she hasn't gotten hold of any silverware." Mitch says loud enough for everyone in the large space to hear. 

"What do you mean?" Gloss asks what's on everyone's mind. 

"Kat makes real good use of what's around her. So resourceful, so many forks and knives." A shiver goes through him like he's reminiscing a horrible memory. "I almost lost three finger on the train ride here" He wiggles his scratched up fingers that I never took notice too. 

I thought that was just a joke. 

"The fuck does that mean?" Cash questions him with a raised eyebrow. 

"I'm positive you'll understand exactly what I mean before they even get in the arena." He shook his head at her like she shouldn't have asked. 

I don't think I'm going to like any of these elevator rides.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! Let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts or scenes you might like to see in future chapters!
> 
> Till next time!
> 
> This has been your friendly neighborhood writer, SpideyPool504!


	4. Chapter Three - The Elevator

We make it to the ground floor where the tributes are waiting for us and the scene we come upon unfolding is... interesting?

When the doors open, the first thing we see is Two's male tribute coming back, as far as he can manage, and then he brings it down as hard and fast across Firefly's ass as he can. Kat squeaks and then he laughs along with One's male trib.

Kat swings around so fast, you'd think she would lose balance. But no, this Kitten is all focus, if falling isn't in her plan, it's not happening. She plants one foot behind her and rears the other one forward and, with as much power as she's got in her tiny frame, kicked his square in the balls. Every male in the crowd groan and grab at themselves, including myself. The mountain of steroids collapses into a heap on the ground, curling into a ball with silent tears trailing down his girl from Two looks ready to pounce on Kat for harming her tribute partner, but as we can see Kat isn't one to back down from a fight. She does seem like one to end them quickly though, because Kat's head does the slowest head turn I've ever seen. She raises one eyebrow, as if to challenge her and her decision, and places her rage filled eye in direct contact with Two's female tribute. Two huffs and places her hands up and backs away, apparently not wanting to have her ass handed to her.

Kat then turns towards us in the elevator, walks in, and leans back against the wall between Haymitch and I. A jolt of electricity passes through me at the touch between our shoulders. The way her head whips towards my shoulder must mean it went through her also. Must be our clothes. Right?

The rest of the tributes pile into the elevator randomly, some sticking to their mentor and some grouping together in a corner. Enobaria pushes the "tribute" button that's programmed to stop on every apartment floor.

"That was uncalled for." Someone from across the elevator says, breaking the silence that was cast over everyone.

"What? Who said that?" Cashmere asks the whole elevator.

Roids had to have caught his breath and stopped his crying because he steps out from his hiding place behind Brutus.

"I said, that was uncalled for, bitch." he directs this straight towards Firefly.

Feeling her hand twitch was probably not a good sign, but before I could I say anything she speaks out in an eerily calm voice,"What did you call me?"

'I called you what you are. A bit-" before Roids could finish his word a fork flies across the elevator and pins his shirt to the wall, effectively cutting him off sentence. The whole elevator stunned to silence. "What the fu-" again, before he could finish another fork is thrown towards him, the shoulder of his shirt being pinned this time.

Everyone looks to Kat who looks looks beyond furious.

"Of course she found silverware. Why wouldn't she? Why make my life any easier?" Hay mutters just loud enough for the elevator to hear.

"What was that, Hay?" Kat asks him quietly. She sounds so menacing when she's quiet.

"Nothing, Sweetheart. Absolutely nothing." He's quick to tell her.

"Mhmm." She hums before pushing off the wall next to me and stalks her way towards the now confused and slightly scared looking tribute she pinned to the wall. Both his and Brutus' adam's apple bob in anticipation of what's to come. Brutus looks like he wants to intervene but thinks better of it.

A butter knife comes out of a pocket that I hadn't noticed before, and when she reaches Two she asks him out right, "Who do you think you are cussing in front of these women and children?" He begins to open his mouth but she raises the knife in between their faces and he promptly shuts it. "Were you raised in a barn? Is that how you adapted this foul mouth? Did you not learn your lesson about disrespect not even 5 minutes ago?" He nods as to say that he did indeed learn. Katniss just shakes her head slowly till he follows her. "Apparently you didn't Cato. Talk foully in front of any female, or touch ANY female before we get into the arena and I will stick my foot so far up your ass you'll be chewing on my toenails. Do you understand me?"

Cato, as I just come to find out, growls out a 'yes' and Katniss nods sarcastically. How she does that one, I haven't the slightest clue but she manages it. She moves back between Hay and I without removing the silverware.

"Do you not want your forks back?"Brutus asks her.

"You can keep them." She tells him with a smirk towards Hay. Hay shakes his head and chuckles under his breath.

Looking back to Brutus and Cato, they look like they're struggling to pull the silverware out. When the elevator dings at the first floor, Gloss walks out with their two tribs followed by Cash who calls out,"Got my answer way sooner than I thought I would." towards Hay. He chuckles as the doors close.

Brutus, Enobaria and Clove, learned her name as well on this fantabulous elevator ride, struggle with the forks till we reach their floor. Baria gets frustrated and finally gets a pair of scissors to cut away Cato's shirt. Brutus smacks Cato upside the head as they walk out, and we can hear yelling behind the elevator doors as they close.

"You're right Finn. I love her." Jo walks over to Kat and I to look her up and down approvingly. "Johanna Mason." When she sticks her hand out for Firefly to shake, I see her flinch. Barely there, but still there. I seem to be the only one to have noticed it. Why did she flinch? People who've been abused flinch at the slightest quick movements. Who in their right mind would hurt this little bug? I feel instant rage course through me, I want to kill whoever's even thought of laying a hand on her. I temper down my rage for the moment, keeping in mind where I was.

"Katniss." She shakes Jo's offered hand.

"Oh, I know." Jo smirks at her, like the thought of Jo not knowing who she was funny. "How did you get it to stick?" She gestures over to the hanging shirt.

They start a conversation on different throwing techniques and everyone else in the elevator follows their lead to converse among st themselves. Mentors and tributes getting off on their respective floors.

Hay and I speak quietly in a corner, in code we made up years ago, about his plan to get Kitten out of the arena. We talk about how I can use my "line of work" to send sponsors towards Katniss, while keeping a good amount for my tributes to not seem so suspicious. He tells me that when the tributes go to sleep, we'll grab Jo and fill her in. In his closet. That he never uses. Because he wears like three things.

When we reach my floor, Nerissa tries to pull on me to pull me out but Mags grabs her by the arm and drags her out. She asks me if I'll be down later and I let her know that I will. She nods her head sadly at me and lets the elevator doors close. I've more than one reason to stay in the elevator and she sadly knows it. Before Mags had her stroke she was in the same "line of work" as I am now. Some of her old clients were now mine and it made me sick to my stomach.

When we get to Jo's floor she makes to walk off but pauses to tell Kat that she'll see her later. Kat nods and then looks down to the little girl named, Rue, from Eleven. Firefly crouches down to her level and admits to her, "I'm sorry you had to hear all of that foul language, Honey."

"That's okay, I've heard worse." She confesses to Kat, and it honestly breaks my heart. Such a young girl shouldn't be subjected to such disrespectful behavior.

"But that's not okay, Honey." Kitten tells her with a frown. "If anyone tries to pick on you or say nasty things to or around you let me know. I'll take care of it for you." Little Rue nods and hugs Firefly. Primrose must give her a fair share of hugs and affection, because Kat didn't flinch and was fully prepared for it. Interesting.

I'm glad someone other than Hay is keeping an eye on Kat. Hopefully soon I'll be able too as well. I'll be damned if anyone even attempts to think about hurting her in any way, shape, or form.

Looking back to Kat, I see the hug ending and Katniss moving to sit on the ground with Rue. Rue sits in Kat's lap and they being talking with one another.

The number of people in the elevator slowly dwindle to just eight of us. The tributes and mentors from Eleven Katniss, Peeta (learned his name on this ride also) Hay and I. The elevator is quiet, save for the soft snores coming from Rue in Kat's lap. When the elevator softly dings for the 11th floor and the doors open, Thresh, just learning everyone's names today, comes over to Firefly and gingerly picks up Rue. He whispers out a soft but gruff 'thank you' and heads out the elevator behind his mentors. They leave and it's just Hay, Peeta, Firefly and I.

Firefly looks worn out and as the elevator comes to a stop on the 12th floor, I can tell she's not going to be moving. The second the doors slide open, Peeta is gone in a flash. Haymitch looks over to me in question, and I nod. A silent agreement that I'll help her to her room. He gives both of us one last glance and walks out.

Katniss is leaning back against the wall and I go to slide down next to her. The silence between us is comfortable, compatible. Leaning back against the wall with my head back, I hear the elevator doors close, but I don't feel it move.

I roll my head to the side towards her, just to study her beautiful features. She looks so peaceful and calm, comfortable where she's at. I'm not sure if she knows I'm here or that I'm staring, but she doesn't seem bothered by it if she does. It seems like she does though because she turns her head towards me to look me in the eyes. Her striking grey eyes pierce through me with fire in her eyes. Not a raging fire, but a more tranquil, calming one. A warm fire was in her eyes now and it was doing a good job of making me feel warm all over.

"What is it about you?" The question comes out so quietly, with her eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?" Confusion comes through clear as day in my voice. Did I do something wrong? What about me? Am I being creepy or intruding being here, in her space?

"Why do I feel like this? Around you, I mean. Peaceful and Comfortable. I feel safe with you near me. Just you being in my line of sight makes me feel slightly more at ease. It's so strange. I haven't felt like this in so long. Not so quickly or fully, at least." She sits up a little straighter and cocks her head to the side, like she's trying to figure me out. I on the other hand am at a loss for words.

I make her feel that way? How do I make her peaceful? I thought I had made her uncomfortable after our first conversation, if you could even call it that. Safe? I can't fathom how I make her feel safe by just being around her. I truly don't know how but I feel pride that I do.

I smile lightly at her and she lays her head back against the wall. She looks even more exhausted after the short talk. I lay my head back again, still facing her, and we sit there for a few more minutes in silence. I just watch her, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness, it seems she doesn't get it often. When she finally decides she wants to move and get up, I watch her make several aborted movements before I chuckle and get into a crouching position.

"Is it alright for me to pick you up to bring you to your room?" I ask her softly. She stares at me for a few moments and then nods her head twice. I give a small smile and then put my right arm under legs and my left behind her back. She brings her arms around my neck and she shifts her head till it sits snugly in the crook of my neck. My entire body is buzzing from the contact. She's so warm but disturbingly light, you can tell she doesn't eat often. It makes my heart ache, no eighteen year old should weigh this little. I feel her body slowly go slack and her breathing even out and she snuggles in closer to my neck and my heart skips a beat. I lay my cheek on her head and enjoy the closeness for moment before walking over to the door and pressing the 'OPEN DOOR' button.

They open slowly but immediately. I walk out into the living room and see Hay on the couch drinking what looks to be maybe tea. He nods towards me and takes a sip of his drink, just to whip back around to me choking on his drink. His eyes are wide and wild, tea leaking from his nose and dripping down his chin. He shakes his head several times as if me standing there with Firefly in my arms would suddenly change.

I ignore him and the gasps from both Peeta and Effie, their escort, and make my way towards Firefly's room as quietly as possible trying not to disturb her. I push open her door and then lay her gently on the giant bed. I ask her quietly," Do you want me to help get your shoes off and into different clothes?"

She takes a moment to wake up a bit and asks me to repeat myself. After I do she takes a moment then say,"alright," with a little nod of her head. She sits up and points at the half open door, I go to close it and lock it then to her dresser. I grab a pair of black sweatpants and a plain light grey T-shirt. Walking back over to her on the bed, I crouch down to unlace her shoes after warning her first.

After taking her shoes off, I help her stand up and help her peel off the black, embellished unitard. When it's finally stripped from her body, I bring the shirt over her head and she helps me slide it on the rest of the way. Letting her hold onto my shoulders I help her put her legs into the correct holes of her sweatpants. Finally done with changing her clothes I pull back her comforter and after she crawls in I bring it back over her. She snuggles down into the mattress and I go to the bathroom to get a washcloth and dampen it with warm water and one side with makeup remover. I grab a second dry cloth and bring them back to the bed and lightly wipe off the little bit of eye makeup she had on.

After wiping off any excess moisture, she looks up to me with tired eyes. "Sleep Firefly, I know you're beyond tired." I tell her and move a stray piece of hair back. She nods and closes her eyes. She seems to be asleep in seconds. "Sweet dreams, Bug." I whisper to her as I get up from my crouching position next to the bed.

I know that no one treats her like this. District Twelve is all poverty and she grew up so young, takes care of a whole district, has raised her sister since she was a toddler, and from what I've heard no one has ever treated her like she's supposed to be. From the flinching I've seen her doing tonight at the slightest quick movements, it seems like she's been treated with more than less of how she's supposed to be. Which is a Queen by the way, if I weren't making that clear.

I'm making it a mission to treat her like a queen as much as humanly possible for the rest of her life. Or at least for as long as she'll let me.

I make it maybe a whole foot away from the bed when her shoots out to grab onto mine. Looking back to her questioningly and crouch back down to meet her at eye level. "What is it Firefly?"

"Can you stay with me? It's okay if you don't want to, that's fine. You know what, that was a stupi-" she starts to ramble adorably but I stop her before she can get any further.

"Of course I can. Do you mind if I step out for a second though? To grab a pair of sweats from Hay's room real quick?" I ask her quietly. She gives me a small smile and a little nod and I squeeze her hand. Letting go of her hand, I walk to the door, unlock it, turn out her light and walk down the hall to Haymitch's room. Opening his bedroom door I see him at his desk drawing up sketches.

Looks like her finished one of them, since it's pushed to the side. It's a picture of a dying and decaying tree, and the one he's working on now is of Koi fish , swimming alongside each other.

"Hurt her and she'll rip you limb from limb before I can." He calls over his shoulder to me as casually as possible.

"I'd be dead in a grave for years, before I ever even thought of hurting her." I call back over to him honestly while I walk to his dresser drawers. Jo walks in just as I grab a pair of sweats and drop my pants.

"Why am I here and not laying down not sleeping?" She directs at Hay and then "And why are you butt ass naked?" at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Well I personally don't like to sleep in tight pants, so constricting." I wiggle my eyebrows at her and I put the sweats up my legs. I look over to Hay and ask, "Would you fill her in?" After he nods, I pick up my pants from the ground and fold them. Walking to the door that leads to the hallway, "I'll see y'all in the morning." is the last thing I say to them just before I close said door. I know I'll be in deep shit with Snow in the morning for missing my appointment but at this very moment I can't seem to give a shit. Firefly asked me to stay with her so that's what I'm going to do, I refuse to be one of the more than likely many people who let her down.

I make my way back to Bug's room without any interruptions, closing and locking the door behind me after I step inside. I make my way over to the left side of the bed, the side she's not on and take off my shoes. Bug had turned over to watch me and I ask quietly,"Is it okay for me to sleep without my shirt on?" If she says no that's completely fine, it's just more comfortable to do without. I truly hate clothes to be honest, but I don't want to make her uncomfortable. She quietly tells me yes, and repeats it once more when I ask if it were okay that I sleep under the comforter with her. It gets cold as fuck in these rooms, but again, never want to make her feel uncomfortable. I strip off the suffocating shirt that's clinging to me with no remorse and trying to strangle me, and slip under the blankets with her.

We lay facing each other for I don't know how long. I catalog every detail I see. Commit it to memory, letting it burn inside my brain so it'll never leave. "Can I," she pauses and I give her moment to try again,"can I lay my head on your chest?" she finishes and I give her a big smile and tell her she can. She shifts closer to me and I do the same, till we're both in the middle of the bed.

I put my left arm under her head and my right arm over her waist, while she wraps both her arms around my waist and head on top of my right peck. I love these slotted beds, makes snuggling with extremely amazing fireflies much easier. I start to run my left hand through her hair, scratching ever so lightly at her scalp, which has her hum lowly in content.

"Thank you, for staying, Finnick." She murmurs to me, her breath warm against my chest, a stark contrast to the cool air in the room.

"Anytime you need me, I'll be right there for you, Bug." I promise to her. She hums once more happily but slowly drifts off to sleep. As her breathing evens out and I'm sure she's asleep this time.

I lie there awake just thinking about the angel of a woman in my arms. I think about how much has happened today, about everything that this little Kat has made me feel in such a soft amount of time. I lay my head against her head and think "I'm so fucked." because I know for a fact that I'm falling hard and fast. I've admired the "legend" that was Katniss Everdeen ever since Haymitch told Jo and I about her, but meeting her in person has let me see that she's one hundred times better than any story can try to describe.

She's one of a kind and I'm going to do everything within my power to make her mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! Let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts or scenes you might like to see in future chapters!
> 
> Till next time!
> 
> This has been your friendly neighborhood writer, SpideyPool504/toritwilight504!


	5. Chapter Four - Through the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another one done, another one done, another chapter done. 
> 
> The song I used in the beginning is "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran, I don't normally use songs in my work but I felt it fit. 
> 
> Let me know if you liked it, hated it, loved it, or despised it. I'm always open to ideas, pointing out mistakes and critiques. 
> 
> Again I LIVE for comments, and I absolutely love watching the number of views grow so tell your friends or anyone you might think like this about it!
> 
> Leave me some love!
> 
> -Tori

I don't plan on sleeping while in bed with Kat but that's only because I don't want to scare the living shit out her with my night terrors. That would not be good. But I do close my eyes eventually and let myself relax in the warmth surrounding me. She is so warm, like a small furnace. 

I've got a blank mind, just enjoying the moment, when I feel Kat twitch. I think nothing of it, must just be her muscles wanting to move after being still for so long. She twitches again so I open my eyes and look down to her. She tightens her hold on me and I start to worry. Her grip on me gets real tight, to the point where it's starting to hinder my breathing. 

"Kat?" I ask her quietly, not sure if she's awake or not. She twitches hard and her legs come around my hips and she squeezes real tight. Okay, now everything is starting hurt. I try to stay as still as possible, worried if I move she'll grip tighter and go to a darker place in her dream. "Katniss?" I ask her a little louder. Her nails are now digging into me. I'm pretty sure if I don't get her either awake or in a better place in her head I'll be bleeding in no time. 

"Firefly?" I change names because it seems her actual name just makes things worse. Her head shifts a bit and she clenches her claws digging in me. That's a good sign. "Firefly, can you hear me?" She doesn't make a sound to that, so I assume she's still asleep. I turn onto my side in her arms to face her, which is a lot harder since she's wrapped around me like a boa constrictor, but I make it happen. 

Once I'm turned, I start to rub her back in small circles with my left hand and bring my right hand from her waist to her head, to start to run my fingers through her hair again. She settles, just slightly, and I relax just that little bit in her arms. I try to think of something else that'll get her back to a peaceful sleep. Playing in her hair and rubbing her back seem to help but there's got to be something more I can do. 

I start to hum a song quietly, the only one I can think of right now for some reason. Which is odd because I love music, and even right some songs of my own. She stays tense so I hum just a bit louder, and that's when she starts to loosen her grip. "Going in the right direction apparently" I think to myself. "Okay, since you're special." I whisper out and then start to quietly sing to her, starting the song over. 

I found a love for me 

Darling, just dive right in and follow my lead

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet

Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me

Cause we were just kids when we fell in love

Not knowing what it was

I will not give you up this time

But darling, just kiss me slow

Your heart is all I own

And in your eyes you're holding mine

She slowly starts to relax so I keep going with a small smile. When I start the next verse she untenses her shoulders and relaxes her legs just a bit more. Her head is now more on my shoulder and she's snuggled her face back into the crook of my neck. A wave of content washes over me. I could do this very night for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. 

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass

Listening to our favorite 

When you said you looked a mess

I whispered underneath my breath

But you heard it

Darling, you look perfect tonight

Well, I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know

She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home

I found a love to carry more than just my secret

To carry love, to carry children of our own

I had started to sing this one because it was the only one I could think of and now I see why. Especially with this next verse. I truly feel every word of this song with Firefly. I've only just met her in person, but I feel like I've known her my whole life. I've heard the stories of her from Hay, I've witnessed as the year s went on how the moral and living situation got ever so marginally better. I've been in love with Katniss Everdeen since I was 14 and had won my games. Since I first met Hay and he found me crying in a corner of the District 12's Mayor's house. Since he told me of this amazing little girl that he knows that was basically a superhero, like in the old pre-war books.

I've been in love with Katniss since I was 14. 

We are still kids but we're so in love

Fighting against all odds

I know we'll be alright this time

Darling, just hold my hand

Be my girl, I'll be your man

I see my future in your eyes

I'm staring at the ceiling while realization floods into me. I'm going to follow this finally peacefully sleeping, ball of pure and true light in my arms to the ends of the earth. I'm going to follow her into wars, into pure hell, into any and everything she decides to get into. This woman in my arms who, I hadn't known was actually real till just yesterday, is the one things that I'vie kept thinking of for years. The one thing that's kept me going, that "If Katniss Everdeen can do it then so can I." She's the best thing to happen to me, even before I met her.

Katniss Everdeen is my sanity. 

I hold her close as I finish the song

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on grass

Listening to our favorite song 

When I saw you in that dress

Looking so beautiful 

I don't deserve this

Darling, you look so perfect tonight

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass

Listening to our favorite song

I have faith in what I see

Now I know I have met an angel in person

And she looks perfect

I don't deserve this

You look perfect tonight 

As I finish the song I give her forehead the softest kiss, I've ever given. There truly is an angel in my arms. I hold her close to me the rest of the night. Every time she starts to twitch or tighten around me, more than just reflex to me moving, I sign the song softly to her till she settles back down. I don't sleep often so, singing to Bug throughout the night was a very nice change in pace. 

I think the last person I sang too was my first girlfriend. Annie Cresta. She died in the area when she was 14. Snow had learned his lesson with Jo and only had one of my loved ones all but executed. She was the only person eligible to go to the games and be the least suspicious to die. One year earlier and it would have been my big sister. Snow made her sure that it hurt me as much as humanly possible for me. I was the one to mentor that year, I was the one to lie to her face and tell her it would be okay. He made sure that I accepted his "offer" back and then triple book me to keep me out of the tribute floor and away from her. 

The night before she went into the arena, we sat on her bed and I just held her. Held her and sang whatever she wanted me too. I was a quick ironic death. She was downed by the male tribute from 9. But that was seven years ago, when I was 16, a year after I had started and quit briefly my "line of work". Her death destroyed me. Till my mom took me and my sister out on a long week long boat trip. We fished and talked and cried and swam, we reminisce about when Meredith and I were younger. 

Then my mom sat me down with just her and I, and we talked about Annie. She told me "It wasn't and never will be your fault. You didn't put her name in the bowl. You didn't call out her name. You had no control over it. This wasn't your fault." and it was then that I saw I couldn't show anyone how any of the games affected me. Not my games, not Annie's, and not any of my 14 tributes games. No one but a Victor would understand me. In that moment I understood why Victors and the mentors seemed so closed off when I went back for my second mentoring. 

Ever since Annie, I haven't let anyone else into my life that wasn't a Victor. The stake of getting them hurt way to high. Yet, here I am. Fully allowing Katniss to take any piece of me she wants, or needs. It surprises me but not by much. Laying here with Katniss wrapped around me and in my arms, is the most peaceful I've felt since my games. 

Singing for Katniss felt like a weight was lifted off my chest. The way it was so easy for me to sing to her probably had something to do with her being asleep, but that's neither here nor there. If anyone else had asked me to, that know I do, I'd flat out tell them no. I know in my heart that I'll probably never tell Bug no to really anything. 

Looking towards the clock that is her wall, I see that it's about to be 5:35 in the morning. Another night of no sleep, but it was totally worth it. I'll have to be up soon to be able to get to my floor with the least amount of people seeing me. It's not unusual for me to be up and around at this time, but seeing me up and around after coming out of Twelve's floor is definitely not something normal. 

I dread having to wake up Bug, but I'll have to soon. I look back don to her and, before I realize I'm doing it, my right hand raises to her face and I start to lightly trace her face with my thumb. Bringing it across her left eyebrow, smoothing down the fine hair there, and noticing that there's the smallest of scars right at the end. I bring my thumb back over it, wondering what happened there. I wonder if it were an accident or if it was something put there by someone else. 

Going from her eyebrow, I make it to her cheek and jaw, finding the smallest of freckles along the way. Her skin is so soft and smooth here. She has another freckle along her jawline and I trace over it several times before moving on. I make it to her bottom lip and trace my thumb just underneath it. Not touching her lip, but close to it. There’s another small scar here, barely visible but there. It runs along the entirety of her bottom lip, it’s a fine line. Like it were done with a knife. I pull my hand away and put it back on my stomach before I can trace it again, and get myself worked up into an angry mess. If she wants to tell me about it, she'll tell me in her own time. 

It's now 5:50 and I've got to get up unfortunately. When I look down to start to wake her up , I find a pair of gorgeous light grey eyes staring up at me. Striking grey with two freckles in her right eye, but terrifying nonetheless. I was not expecting that, and neither of us were expecting the squeak of surprise or "oh shit" that came out of me. 

We stare at each other for a moment, and then I see her face fight back a smile. She cracks and my jaw drops in mock shock. "So mean. Laughing at me." I close my eyes and bring my hand up to my mouth in a fist. I do a quick fake cry and "excuse me" into my fist and she bursts into laughter. It's the best thing I've heard in my life and I'm definitely going to be acting like an idiot to try to get it to come out as much as possible for the rest of my life. The smile on her face is splitting her face and blinding and beautiful. 'So fucked' runs through my mind and then ' and I don't care' follows it. 

I lay there with a giant toothy smile on my face, that actually hurts my cheeks from how big it is. This has got to be my favorite morning ever. I want so many more of these. I want so many more days, and nights with this ray of sunshine. 

"You're so dramatic." She chuckles out, sitting up and pushing me good nurtured. 

"Only for a special few." I tell her honestly. She looks over to me with a raised eyebrow. "What? It's true. Very few get to see my dramatic side." I raise both my eyebrows and look towards the wall behind me, since I was still laying down. I hear her laugh under her breath and look back to her and give her a cheeky smile. "I'm sorry if I woke you up. Even though you did get me back being all ninja like and scaring me half to death.I was trying to let you sleep in." I tell her, chuckling at the end. 

She sighs and says, "I did sleep in. This is the latest I've slept in , since I was little. But no, you didn't wake me up. I don't know how I slept in this long, normally I get like three maybe four hours till I'm up from bad dreams." She looks perplexed at how she slept in, meanwhile I'm horrified that she's normally up earlier than six am. 

"You get up at five? Every morning?" I ask her with a raised eyebrow.

Shaking her head,"No, I don't."

"Good." sighing in relief 

"I get up at 3:30, sometimes 4." she finishes 

"What the actual fuck." I say in a monotone voice. "Why in the holy hell are you getting up that early, Bug?" I ask her concerned.

"Besides the nightmares, it's a good time to hunt." She's looking out to the distance with a thoughtful look on her face. "the turkeys run rampant just before the sun comes up. And the rabbits are just waking up so they're a bit slower. Them being fast has never been a problem but when they're slow it's just easier." She's got a smile on her face, "I love being out there by myself, though I don't mind when Gale comes with me but he's just so damn loud." She's shaking her head, probably at Gale and his loud ass self. 

"Being out where? And why doesn't he learn how to keep quiet?" Asking her that seems to kick her out of her reminiscing and whip her head back to me.

"No where. You didn't hear a single thing I said. Not a damn thing." She stares me down with wild eyes filled with, is that fear? 

"I didn't hear anything." I put my hands up in surrender "Although. If I did, it would never leave me. Not another soul would hear of anything you don't want to be heard." Telling her that seems to calm her, though she's still on guard. I guess she doesn't tell many people about where she goes. Must be illegal, what she does. My admiration for her just grew a bit. I finally sit up and look to her. 

"Thank you. For everything Finnick." She's looking down at her hands that are clasped together in front of her. 

"Anything you need, I'm here for you Firefly." I reassure her. 

She smiles and then looks over to me, then past me. "You should probably get going. Haymitch will be up soon, if he didn't drink to much last night." 

I look over and see 6:15 being displayed on her wall. I nod sadly and say, "Yeah I probably should. Have to go and make sure Mags is okay." Looking over to her she doesn't have a smile anymore but she nods. "I'll see you later though. We do have to ride the same elevator, every day, till you go into the arena." I can see the smile make a small reappearance on her face. 

She nods and says, "That's completely right." We smile at each other one more time before I get up and stand from the bed. I walk over to her dresser and grab my pants from on top of it. I grab my shirt on my way to her bathroom, quickly changing back into my clothes from yesterday. I'll be able to shower and change when I get back to my room. 

I walk towards the door and unlock it, but before I open it, I look back to Firefly. "Just let me know if you need me." I tell her and she nods then waves at me. I do a little wave back and open the door to step out. I step into the hallway and close her door behind me. I smile and turn around and come face to face with Peeta, Bug's district partner. 

"What are you doing here?" I he demands from me. I raise an eyebrow at him, does he really think he's as big as he thinks? I don't answer him and try to step around him. He must not like that because he puts his hand on my shoulder and shoves me back into the wall, next to Bug's door. He's a little stronger than he looks, but not nearly strong enough to be of any real threat to me. "I asked you a question. What are you doing here? And why were you in Katniss' room?" He growls out to me. 

I chuckle and then stand to my full height to tower over him. I see him back down slightly. "And I'm more than positive that I was walking away without answering." I coke my head to the side, nod a bit and then give him my trademark Capitol smirk. "Now if you would oh so kindly back the fuck up, I'll be able to get on with my day." I mock like I'm about to walk away but put my hand on his shoulder, move him to the side and then lean down to whisper in his ear. "Ever lay a hand on me again, and you'll lose it. Rules be damned. You have no idea what I can get away with." I give him a big fake toothy smile, straighten back up and walk away. 

I walk into the living room to see that apparently everyone else in Twelve gets up early as well. What with Haymitch chuckling, Cinna sipping tea at the dining room table barely glancing up at me, and Effie stopping mid stride to just stare at me. "You can't kill the boy, Finn." Haymitch calls to me laughing under his breath while I walk towards to elevator. 

"Then advise him not to touch me again, you know I don't like that shit." I call back to him nonchalantly. He knows how much I hate unwanted and unexpected touches. If I'm not being blackmailed into it, or initiate it, it doesn't need to happen. I open the door in the kitchen that leads to the stairs, and walk right out. It'll be faster if I just take the stairs. Slow ass elevator. Making my way to my district's floor takes a minute, but no one uses the stairs so at least no one outside of Twelve saw me. 

I open the door my floor and peak my head in. Just as suspected, not a single person is awake, and if they are, they aren't up walking around. I make my way down the hall and stop at Mags' door, I peep my head in and see that she's awake, on her bed reading a book. She garbles out a sentence and I answer back "I did but no I didn't sleep with her. She just wanted someone to be there with her." I give her an easy smile and she gives me a lopsided one back. Her stroke has half the left side of her face partially numb. She garbles out something else and I really hope she didn't just tell me what I think she just told me. "She is not. Please tell me she's not." I ask in desperation, I really don't want to deal with this right now. It's too early to be dealing with this. She shrugs her shoulders and tells me something along the lines of 'I tried to stop her'. 

I bow and shake my head. Of course this would be happening. It happens almost every single year. 

"I don't want to deal with this right now. I'm going to go to the training room before the tributes have to be there. Maybe I can mentor the tridents before Snow calls upon me to triple my workload." I nod to her and then shut her door. I unfortunately have to go to my room to get my training clothes. I dread the sight that is most likely in there. I hesitantly walk towards my designated room and quietly peep my head through the door. 

"Hey there, Finn Finn." I cringe at both the dreadful name and naked 16 year old in my bed. I cover my eyes line of sight of her as she sits up and the sheets fall. 

"Uh uh, get the fuck out." I walk over to my dresser and pull out my training clothes, which are all black, with blue lining down the sides. The capitol loves blue for my district. I jump out of my skin and then across the room towards the bathroom when I feel a pair of hands touch my sides. "Hell no. Get out before I have you removed and confined to your room. You won't come out of it unless I'm nowhere near here or if it's time to leave. Don't test it. Get. The fuck. Out." I grit out. I'm so tired of this shit. 

"But, I want you. I know you want me too." She tries to walk towards me but stops when stare her right in her eye. I throw a towel at her and it hits her in the face, but I could care less. It falls to the ground but my eyes stay level with hers. 

I use my most lethal voice when I say,"Leave. Now." I know I look scary, I've had to perfect this over the years. 

She jumps and drops to get the towel, and then runs out my room, slamming the door behind her. I untense and drop the guarded stance I didn't realize I took up. I hate this. I hate what Snow has made me out to be. No one looks at me like a human anymore, just a piece of meat. A sex symbol. I'm so much more than that. 

I shake my head again and then walk towards the bathroom. I quickly change clothes, I grab a pair of swim trunks and head out my room, leaving way of stairs once more, because honestly, if I don't have to use the elevator I won't. I make it to the basement floor in no time, being only six floors down and all.

I get down to the training room doors and fling them open, not caring if the doors hit the walls. The overhead light illuminate as I walk around. I make it over to the swimming pool and start to strip. I'm the only one down here so why not. I pull my trunks and then dive into the deep end. I stay under for a minute and then come up for a breath of air. I lay on my back on top of the water and float, clearing my mind and just laying there. I close my eyes and drift in the middle of the overly large pool. My ears under the water muffle the world around me. 

My favorite place in the world to be, is in the water. The ocean behind my house will forever being the most relaxing. The salt water drying on my face, with the sun shining down on me. No clients, no games, no tributes to mentor, no Snow. The ocean is my happy place. I hope I can show it to Firefly before we inevitably go to war with Snow. I truly hope Haymitch's plan is a good one, since he won't tell me the whole thing. Just feeds Jo and I tidbits. Tells us, 'It'll be alright, get off my back'. He can be so frustrating at times. 

I roll my eyes under my eyelids and push myself back and under the water again. I go to the bottom of the pool and lay on my stomach against the ground, holding onto the anchored ropes there. Five minutes is my max at holding my breath before my lungs start to burn from lack of oxygen. I finally reach the five minutes and then let go of the ropes. I begin to let my body drift up and float to the surface of the pool after a slight push off the bottom. My head breaches the water and I take a deep breath with my eyes closed. 

"Hey there."


	6. Chapter Five - First Day of Training

The squeak that comes out of me was anything but manly and I'll deny it till the day I die. The amused look on Firefly's face though makes up for it though. "Two times? In one day? This isn't fair." I stick my lip out in a pout, being over dramatic just for her. She chuckles and I gasp,"So mean to me!" Placing a hand over my heart to show she hurt me.

"So dramatic." She shakes her head with a smile on her face, still crouching at the side of the pool. I swim up to the where she's at and fold my arms on the lip of the pool. I set my chin down on them and look up at her.

"Only for the special few." I remind her "What are you doing down here? What time is it?"I ask her. She cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Everyone is about to be down here, training is about to start. It's 8:00" she informs me. 

My eyebrows shoot up to I imagine my hairline. "Really? I've been in here for that long?" I turn my head and try to think of how the time went by so fast. She shakes her head at me and laughs under her breath. "What?" I ask her curiously.

"You." She tells me softly, looking at me with her head to the side. My eyebrows draw together in confusion at what she means. She just gives me her beautiful smile. I do another over the top pout of my bottom lip and she just rolls her eyes at me. "Come on, you're going to get pruney." She stands up and makes it over to the wall next to my clothes. 

"Do you not want a swimming lesson?" I wiggle my eyebrows at her, half joking. 

"I already know how to swim." She informs me with a disbelieving look on her face, which is probably more for me than herself. 

"Oh really now? And where are the swimming holes or pools in the mining district?" I ask her, not expecting an answer back. 

"Our old washing drums we use for baths are huge." I can tell that's not the truth but I'm not going to push her. It's probably illegal and the last thing I want is to get her in trouble before she goes into the arena. 

"Well okay then, here I come." I say while I put my hands flat on the side of the pool. I use the wall as a kick off point and propel myself out of the water. I shake my head fast, to try to get some of the water out of it. I roll my eyes, and try to get my bearings after shaking them loose. I open my eyes, and Firefly is standing in front of me holding a giant black towel. She looking me in my eye and doesn't stray. That's new. I take the towel from her hand, "Thank you, Bug." I wipe off my face and then go to dry off my shoulders and chest. I look back up to her and she's just smiling at me,her head is cocked again. "What?" I ask in question to the look. 

"Your hair. All twenty pounds of it. It's just everywhere." Her smile gets a bit more toothy as she tells me think. 

And let me tell ya, I the Finnick Odair did not blush and try to fix it as fast as possible. "Sorry." I go to run my hair through my hair,as my cheeks definitely don't start to go red, and try to fix it but a hand stops me. 

"Don't be sorry. It's kinda cute." She nods to herself, looks me in the eyes. She nods to me and then turns and walks away. 

I stand there for a moment, right hand half raised, left hand clutching my towel, soaking wet and speechless. "What just happened?" I ask myself under my breath. I look around to try to find... something. I don't know, I've never been called 'cute' before. Handsome. Sexy. Dashing. Those are words I've heard describe me. Never 'cute'. Again, another new thing that the Katniss Everdeen has brought into my life. 'So fucked.' I think to myself, my ears and cheeks red and hot. "She's going to be the death of me." I say under my breath, drying off the rest of my chest and then my legs. 

After getting dressed, I walk out to the main room in the Training Center. There's all 24 tributes standing in front Jenifer, who's giving them the speech she does every year. Then she tells them the rules of the room. No fighting, share the resources, excetera. I begin to walk up behind her, using my Victor silence, and come to look over her shoulder from a little bit away. She doesn't notice me, but the group does. I read what's on her tablet in front of her and see that it's just a tally mark next to everyone's name, a roster. So that's what she's been doing up here, nothing special. I pout my lips in disappointment. Here I thought she was doing something special. I look up scan the crowd of kids and see most of them gawking at me. Roids from Two is staring at the ceiling acting like he's better than this. The girl and boy from One look like they're trying to get my attention, but I glance over them. 

I find my Firefly in the way back, with the smallest of smiles on her face, standing next to a glaring Peeta. He's glaring at me to be specific. I smirk and raise an eyebrow at him, asking him silently if he really wanted to push his luck. He rolls his eyes and then turns to Bug and says something quietly to her who ignores him completely, and now looks mad. My smirk gets even bigger as he turns from her with an angry face. Looks like someone doesn't like to be ignored, and it looks like he said the wrong damn thing to Kat. 

Jenifer finishes everything she needed to say and goes to back up but backs into me instead. She jumps but doesn't squeak which disappoints me as well. Why am I the only one that squeaks? And that's the only way to describe it. A squeak. She turns and looks up at me and says in a monotone voice "Mr. Odair."

"Jen" I say kindly with one of my Capitol smiles. 

"Joining us today?" She raises an eyebrow at me. I understand, I never stay this long. I'm normally out of the Center before or right after the tributes get here. 

"Absolutely! At least until lunch. Mind if I take over the Tridents? Or maybe knives? Ooo I know! Swimming!" She rolls her eyes at me and tells me to handle the trident, since I mostly used a trident in my games. I nod and make my way over to the tridents, picking one up and weighing it in my hand. Such a familiar weight. I used to love having it in my hand. Now not so much. 

I turn around to face the small crowd of people the gathered around me. Some of them look like they actually want to learn something, like the male tribs from One and Two. The others look like they want to grope me or try to make a pass at me, since there's no way in hell they'll be able to actually attempt to wield one of these. I don't see Bug in my small crowd but that's okay. I see her over at the fire making station.

I begin talking to the small group, passing the trident to the trib in front of me. The boy from One turns it over in his hand and then hands it off to Roids, and so on and so forth. When it gets back around to me, I show them how to set their stance, and how to heave it forward. I nail the still target dead on, then nail the moving ones dead on as well after. One by one they come to stand where I am and try their best to do what I did. All fail horribly and Roids storms off after I try to correct his stance. So much rage in such an incompetent, single track, 'my way or no way' mind. The boy from One seems to taken place in an alliance with him as he trails behind him, looking like he didn't want to leave. That alliance is not going to end well. I roll my eyes and half pay attention the group still trying and failing to get the trident down the way to the target. 

I cross my arms and lean back against the wall next to the stand holding other tridents. I glance around the room, totally not looking for a glance at Katniss. I look over to the fire station and see she must have moved on. I keep my gaze shifting, never looking at one place for too long, trying to not look like I'm looking for someone. 

I finally find her over at the knot tying station. Oh my she's atrocious at that, she's making knots alright. But not a single one she makes is one that'll hold to... anything really. I hide my smile when I see her eyebrows scrunch together in concentration, her tongue poking out between her lips just the smallest bit. That's the cutest thing I've ever seen. I turn my attention back to the tributes still at the tridents with me.

And then Peeta comes over. 

"Fan fucking tastic" is what goes through my head. "Well hello there." I give him a closed lip smile and wiggle my eyebrows at him. "How goes it with Katniss? Saw her ignore your existence this morning." I ask with a giant Capitol smile on my face. He gives me side glare, "Was it about me? Were you trying to talk shit about me?" He rolls his eyes at me and folds his arms. "It was wasn't it. You were trying to talk shit." I laugh a little loud and then reign it in when the tributes from the next station over look over, "Aw, little Peeta Roll. How cute." I shake my head at him and move on from it, he and it are really not worth the thought. 

I show him how to hold himself and how to place his feet. I show him how I throw it and then I let him take a turn. Surprisingly he does a bit better than the others that were here earlier. I wonder what he does daily that gives him the upper arm strength. I fix his feet and tell him to put his weight into his throw so it'll go faster and harder at the target. He does so without complaint and makes it to the target. Seems like someone is going to actually try to get out of the arena. 

Twelve is really surprising this year. 

He looks back to me smug. Why? Why must he be this way? "Katniss owes me. I'm coming out of that arena, I'll do whatever I have to." He tells me and then walks away. I feel like that statement was a lie, but you never know. I'm not going to draw my own conclusions, I'm just going to ask Firefly about it later. It's going to bug me but I can deal, I'm a patient man. I wonder what he meant though.

All I know for sure is that, no matter what he thinks, he's not the one coming out of that arena. 

After teaching a few more people how to throw the trident, lunch is announced by Jenifer. Everyone makes their way to the cafeteria and I see Jo with vast amounts of food on her plate. 

"You have a plate under there?" I ask her as I sit down across from her, not wanting to deal with the crowd of people in line for food at the moment. I'll go up there when everyone's sat down. Haymitch walks in and takes a plate of food out of Peeta's hand and then makes his way over to Jo and I. Peeta is left looking confused and mad, slowly making his way to the back of the line to get another plate of food. 

"Anyone look to be a problem?" the question he asks is directed at me. He takes a bite out of the cheeseburger and looks surprised that it tastes good. "Since when does food taste like this?" he asks before I can answer his first question. 

"Well food tends to taste different when you're not drunk off your ass, Hay. It's a thing." Jo answers for me. 

Before those two can get into it, I interrupt with, "Roids from Two has some serious anger problems. Almost got into like three fights today. The Careers are set up again with the same districts. Both from One and Two and I think the boy from Five are all in an alliance. They look dysfunctional but they're probably going to get far. If I had to bet I think it's going to be Roids in a showdown with Katniss at the end." I nod to myself, thinking back to everything I watched today. "Peeta may be a problem. He told me and I quote "Katniss owes me. I'm coming out of that arena, I'll do whatever I have to." Do you think he's got the balls to be an actual problem?" I direct the last bit to Haymitch. 

"That boy thinks giving her burnt bread when the were kids, means she's going to just hand him the way out of the arena? Does he not know that she'll do legitimately anything and everything to get back to her sister? Listen, the only thing we have to actually worry about is if Katniss finds the twelve year old from Eleven in the arena. If she does, Katniss won't come out. She'll protect that girl till her dying breath." Haymitch looks torn. Like he wants to be mad but can't bring himself to actually be mad. "Katniss won't throw her life away for Peeta, but she will for that little girl. Let's just hope they don't find each other." He shakes his head and takes another bite from his burger. "Two on the other hand might give her some trouble but if there's any trees and unless any of them can climb a tree, they won't be able to reach her." He smirks around his bite of food and Jo and I look to each other.

"What do you mean?" Jo takes the question right out my mouth. He just shakes his head.

"You'll see." He's always such a cryptic bastard.

"What? Like we saw with the silverware in the elevator?" I ask him and he bursts into laughter. He just nods and I roll my eyes, "I'm going to get some food." I stand up and step away from the table, making my way to the back of the line, I'm met with a tense Firefly. As I walk up to her I raise my right eyebrow at her, a silent question of 'are you okay?'

She nods and then cocks her head to the side, I think she's asking me if I'm okay. I nod to her and she gives me a small smile. I love her smiles so much, all of them, down to the smallest ones. They're all breathtaking. 'So fucked'. I give her a small smile back and the grab a plate of salad and french fries. Balance. Plus I'm not all that hungry. Lost my appetite a while ago when I remembered that Snow is going to be on my ass till the moment I leave. 

Firefly gives me one last nod and then goes over to the corner of the cafeteria and sits down, with her back to the wall. I turn to walk back to Haymitch and Jo and sit back down in my original spot. Jo has finished all ten pounds of her food and is now arguing with Hay with something. I hear the words "woodchuck" and "spaghetti sauce" and come to the conclusion that I don't want to know what they're talking about. I tune them out as I begin to eat. 

My mind starts to wonder. I wonder how my mom's doing? And Meredith. How's her wedding planning going? I should call home in the morning, since I probably won't get to my room till morning. They're used to early morning calls from me. They don't know what I do, but they know I don't sleep a lot. I miss the sound of their voices. My mom's is always so calming to me. She'll love to hear about Katniss, but that will have to wait till I get home. Can't chance the phones being tapped on either side. I can't want to tell her about Bug. Mom's going to love her. 

So is Meredith. I really hope she's not going with generic blue for the wedding. I told her not too, to do a purple or pink. I've come to hate the color blue because of the Capitol. My favorite color is sea foam green, it's a light, pastel green. It has a tint of blue, but not enough to be considered blue. 

Not surprisingly my mind drifts to Katniss. I wonder what her favorite color is. I feel like it's something dark. Like a dark purple maybe. I want to ask her, I'll probably have to tomorrow or maybe tonight if I finish my list of people Snow has lined up for me. Normally during the games, I have two to three people a night. I'll probably have something around five or six a night till the games end. I'll be beyond exhausted and feel disgusting the entire time I'm here, but spending the whole night with Bug was worth it. I just hope Snow doesn't find out that I've finally gone soft for someone other than my family and Jo and Hay, who can't actually hurt any further than he already has. If he hurts Katniss because of me, I'll never forgive myself. 

I look up and behind Hay to the corner of the room and see that Katniss is trying her very best to ignore whatever Peeta is saying to her. Her face looks like she's not interested and isn't paying attention to him, but her eyes. Jesus her eyes are on fire, She looks livid. She looks like she wants to throw Peeta across the table. What in the holy hell is he telling her? Why is he always trying to piss her off? Does he not see the amount of patience for bullshit she has? 

"Katniss looks like she's about to kill Peeta." I nonchalantly tell the table. Putting another fry into my mouth, noticing sadly that it is my last one. 

"Shit." Haymitch says under his breath then stands up and quickly makes his way over to them. Bug looks calm but her eyes say thankful for the interruption. Peeta is making small angry hand gestures towards Kat and I see her eye twitch. Not good. I guess Hay noticed the twitch because he sends Peeta off somewhere. Peeta storming off in angry stomps like a child that was just told they couldn't have candy for breakfast. What is wrong with that guy? 

Bug looks calm and collected as ever but she looks slightly less tense. She goes back to eating her burger and Hay comes back to sit at the table again. I raise my eyebrow at him in question, "What was that about?" 

"Fucking dumb ass. So fucking stupid. Why does he have to be like this? I know Sierra is a bitch but fuck, did Will not teach him anything? I know Fuckface's brothers aren't this stupid." He rants for a moment. Then takes a breath and explains what he meant. "Peeta was telling Katniss that he got them into an alliance with One and Two and she told him flat out 'no' because it's a stupid fucking plan and they're obviously just going to kill them the second they go to sleep. So Dumbass decided that calling Kat stupid and telling her that she owed him. She's going to kill him. Before they get to the arena, she's going to kill him. I'm calling it now." He puts his head in his hands, elbows propped up on the table. 

Jo places her hand on his shoulder and says,"Shit happens," shrugs and then finishes off her food finally. Seriously, how much can she eat before she feels sick?

"I have faith. Just a small bit, that she won't kill him." I add. 

"Thanks guys, so reassuring." Hay rolls his eyes at us. 

I look around and see that almost everyone is gone from the cafeteria and have moved back into the Training Center. I lean over to look into the center to see if anyone really needs help with the tridents and I see that there isn't anyone lined up, and even if they were, there's an instructor there. I guess they booted me out. 

"Looks like I was kicked out of the Center." I gesture to the station with a nod of my head. I contemplate in my head what to do next, then inform the two knuckleheads in front of me that "I guess I'm going to go start on my list. Might as well try to get it over with for the day. No use in putting it off any longer." I shrug off their sympathetic looks. 

"Soon Odair. I promise." Haymitch tells me. I believe him but till it happens this is still my life. I still have to follow the rules laid out for me, or people die. It's bad enough I've already tested limits. It's not the first time that I've not gone through my list on the very first day here, but it is the first time in a few years that I have done it. I don't want to push any further. "I'll see you guys in the elevator. Make sure Kat doesn't walk out with any silverware. Please? She doesn't need to be in trouble." They nod, but I know they aren't actually listening. Looks like we're probably going to have another fun adventure in the elevators tonight. 

I take one more look out to Firefly who moved out to the Center again, see her at the knives station and is nailing every target. Her accuracy is terrifying, to be completely honest. She's definitely getting practice in somewhere. I wonder what she's hiding, because it seems like she's holding back, believe it or not. Maybe one day she'll share it with me, share everything with me. A man can dream right?

I've run into a problem. I think of Kat way too much. In the times I really don't want too. Not good. Not good in any way, shape, or form. I do not want to think of my Katniss while inside some asshole who bought me. It's not only wrong but it's gross. 

After my fourth buyer of the night, out of seven mind you, I head back to my room. I take a quick shower, since I'll be back out there right after I collect my tributes. Mags had a doctor's appointment so I had to take a pause. I hate doing what I do but I hate pausing in the middle of it also. I'd rather just get it over with in one long fuckathon than drag it out. But I'd never ask Mags to not go to an appointment for her health. 

I get clothes on quick and run out my room to press the elevator button down, hopefully it hasn't passed my floor yet. It takes a second but it comes to me, and there's only mentors in there so thankfully I didn't miss tribute pick up. I step in and take my normal place next to Hay who's next to Jo. There's not as many people that are going to be on here with us today apparently. The only days that it's mandatory that both mentors ride the trib elevator is the very first day that they come here and the day they're sent into the arena. Other than that the tributes can ride by themselves to and from their floor to the Training Center and cafeteria, mentors can just wait till their tributes reach their floor. As long as the tribute is accounted for before dinner.

We slowly but surely we make our way down. I hate this elevator. With every fiber of my being. This elevator shares a spot with Snow. Yeah I said it, well thought it. Fuck this elevator. We finally make it to the Training floor and when it opens everything seems normal.

Then when we slowly start our rise through the floors. There's a tension in here but I don't think anyone can place who it's between. I look at Bug who's between Hay and I again, close enough to me that our shoulders bump together at the slightest movement. Little Rue is sitting in front of her leaning back against Bug's legs, Peeta is across the elevator by himself glaring at Firefly and then shifting it over to me and then Hay. What happened? 

Roids and the boy from One are in the corner again, laughing under their breath, glancing over at Bug and I. What in the hell is going on here. I glance over to Bug and see she looks uninterested in everything in the elevator. That's just a glance at her face, when I look at her eyes and where they're directed at I almost question her what's happening out loud. Then I look across the elevator to see who she's trying to kill with her gaze and see Peeta, cowering in a corner, trying oh so hard to not draw any attention to himself. 

What did he do now? "Just don't make a move to kill him till we're on the floor" I hear Hay when he leans over to whisper this in Bug's ear. I look at him with a raised eyebrow when he stands straight up again. He just shrugs his shoulders and then leans back against the wall once more. His face slack but body on alert, probably at the ready to grab Bug before she can launch across the elevator. 

We slowly make our way through the floors, dropping off all the tributes and mentors. My tributes get off and meet Mags at the door, Mags just nods to me, knowing that I'm not getting off. Jo stays on the elevator too, probably both needing to talk to Hay and I and to see what happens to Peeta when we're all alone. It's pretty easy to pick up on the tension between the two. 

Rue stands up when we get to the Eleventh floor and turns to give Firefly a hug, "I'll see you tomorrow for training?" Rue nods and then steps off the elevator with Thresh, her male district partner. 

The doors close and all is quiet for a moment. Then "You mother fucker." Is spit from Bug's mouth, and Hay, Jo and I whip to her. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it! I swear! I don't know why I said it! Please believe me Katniss!" Peeta is almost in tears. 

"Do you understand how big of a target you put on my back? Who the fuck does what you did?" She asks him quietly.

"What happened? What did he do?" Haymitch asks what all three of us are wondering. 

"Why don't you tell them?" Firefly suggests to Peeta nonchalantly, leaning back against the elevator wall with her arms folded in front of her. 

He scrambles to try to think of something, frantically looking around the room for an escape, till one is given to him. The elevator doors open and then he takes a second to probably weigh in his head if he could get out fast enough or not. He takes his chances and bolts for the open doors, Bug doesn't move an inch. Hay's the closest one to the door, being right next to the buttons, and he looks poised to grab Firefly if need be. 

Peeta takes his first running step onto the district floor and Kat bring her foot up, over and down onto Hay's foot. It catches him off guard, leaving Kat an opening to pounce and lunge at Peeta. She hits him sideways and they both tumble to the ground. 

Jo and I try to process everything that's happened in the last minute, we still don't fully know what and why everything that's happening, is happening. We glance at each other then we glance at Hay, who's trying to stand on his hurt foot and possibly broken toes, and then we take a few steps forward to see that Peeta and Katniss are fighting to pin each other down. That is till Bug pushes him up enough to knee him in the balls. Both Jo and I make pained noise, knowing that Bug's legs are pretty strong and that had to hurt. 

Peeta crumbles, Katniss pins him to the ground, takes a fork from the set table next to her, and Hay finally gets up to make it to them. 

Jo and I look to each other and slowly walk off the elevator, and stand a little bit away from the scene happening before us. 

"Tell them what you did! Tell them or you lose function in your hand for the next few days!" Bug threatens Peeta, holding the fork right over his pinned hand right above him. 

"Okay! Okay, I-I-I told them I saw Finnick coming out of her room this morning!" Peeta stutters out in a screech.

I almost drop to my knees. "Fishbrains? Finn? Finnick! Look at me!" I hear Jo yelling at me in concern.

I look up to her, "He's gonna kill someone. He's gonna get Mom. He's going to punish me. He's gonna punish Katniss." I whisper under my breath to her, not loud enough for anyone to else besides us to hear. 

"Come on." She takes me by the shoulder and leads me to the couch. "He's not going to go after Mom. She's to much in the public eye to touch. He can't go after Meredith, they would know something is up. He can't touch Katniss right now. I can't promise shit when she gets into the arena but right now she's safe. If he finds out he'll just up your buyer list. You'll be neck deep in buyers but it's better than any alternative." I nod to everything she says, she's making sense. She nods her head in time with mine and we just sit there for a moment.

All the while there's screaming and yelling and glasses breaking behind us. I can hear Effie screeching about a mahogany wood table, Haymitch is trying to get Kat to calm down, and someone back there is crying. Jo and I look to each other and then turn our head to the scene behind us. 

There's glass shattered everywhere, Haymitch is pinned to the wall, Effie is being held by Cinna who looks bored, and Peeta is in the corner of the kitchen cabinets crying into his arms, curled into the fetal position. The scene is laughable but Peeta fucked up to bad to do so. 

I stand from the couch and then make my way over to Firefly who's standing next to Haymitch. "Firefly?" She looks to me with fear in her eyes. 

"What are they going to do to me? The careers are going to kill me. I'll be the main one they come after. They're going to drag out every part of killing me." She tells me in a devastated voice. I want to kill Peeta. How dare he. 

"They're not going to do shit. You're too smart to get caught by them." I tell her honestly, I'm not really too worried about the Careers. It's the gamemakers that have me scared for her. I'm dreading to see what they have in store for this. Snow made it a rule to not sleep with anyone outside of my buyers while I'm in the Capitol. We didn't but I'm sure that's not how Peeta made it out to be. "How about you go take a hot long bath? Go and get the sweat of training off you? That'll help you feel better." I put my hand on her shoulder and she looks up to me nearly in tears. I'm so beating Peeta's ass. The rage going through me is almost lethal. I need off this floor before I kill the boy. 

Bug doesn't let any tears fall but does put her arms around me and hugs me close to her. Haymitch behind her has wild eyes, he looks scared. I bet he's never seen Katniss like this. I don't think anyone has. I don't want Kat to have all these eyes on her so i lean down and pick her up just as I had the night before. I turn towards her room and walk off with her in my arms without a word to anyone else. I let her hug me close, and then sit her on the bed once I reach her room. 

"Bug? Can you look at me for a second?" She looks up to me, tears brimming her eyes. The ache in my chest grows when I see the tears. "Oh Honeybee." I bring her in for another tight hug. I whisper the next few things quietly into her ear. "I have to go do something really important right now. I don't want to go, but I have too. But I promise you, if you want me too I'll come back here right after." She nods her head against my chest. "Do you want me to come back after? I don't know when I'll be done." She nods again and then backs away from me to sit straight on the bed. 

"Please." She all but whimpers. My heart literally feels like I'm having a heart attack, it hurts so much. 

"Anything for you, Bug. I'll come back here right after I'm done. I promise." I take her hands in mine, when I make her this promise. Looking her directly in the eyes, making sure she knows I mean every word I tell her. She looks like she believes me and nods. "I have to go right now okay? The faster I get this done, the sooner I can come back." She nods again and I stand up, I kiss her forehead and then let her hands go. I walk towards the door and open it. I turn just before I close it and tell her one more time, "I promise." 

I get a small smile from her and I give one back. Then close the door and walk back to the living room and kitchen. 

I see Jo cutting Hay out of his shirt, Effie is fussing over the dining table and Peeta is still in the corner crying. Pathetic. I bypass all of them and make my way to the elevator. I press the button to go to the ground floor and begin my descent. 

All I can think of is how I'm going to try to rectify everything before Katniss goes into the arena. 

I don't know if I'll be able to fight Snow without her. She slowly becoming my everything. The one that keeps me on track. Keep me looking for the right thing to do, the better thing to do. She's got me doing and thinking things I never thought I would think of again after Annie. Thinking of a future with someone. Thinking of finally defeating Snow. Having a life with someone without the games. Knowing I've got someone on my side. Having someone that doesn't care about the image that's been put on me. 

She's slowly becoming my Sanity. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!


	7. Chapter Six - Rooftop Talking

When I finally get done with my last client, I all but run back to the Tribute Tower. Hoping that Bug hasn't killed Peeta. The repercussions for that are horrible. I make it to the Tower in record time, while managing to not look like I was a crazy person running down the street muttering under their breath to themselves. 

I look to make sure no one is looking before I slip behind the door to the where the Avoxs do laundry and have cleaning supplies and such, I look quickly for the elevator they use. It's a lot faster than the tribute elevator I hear, and we're about to test out if that's true or not. I finally find it and jump on before someone can find me. I press the button to go to Four's floor, for a quick shower and change of clothes. I don't want to smell like forced sex and shame. I know it's "I fuck who ever buys me or my family and friends and loved ones die" but I still feel ashamed of myself. If I had just died in my games everyone would be fine, Annie would still be alive, and my family and friends wouldn't be any type of danger because of me. 

This elevator moves faster than a regular one, and about a thousand times faster the the tribute elevator. This is an elevator I can get behind. This elevator gets you where you need to go quick, and right now that's to Katniss. I really want to make sure she's okay, she was really upset when I left. I wonder if she's still awake. It's 2 am so I'm not completely sure. She may think I forgot, I mean it has been five hours since I left her with the promise to be back. I don't want her to think I just up and left her. 

It's been hours since I heard what Peeta did and I'm still stunned. I'm sure he only set out to try to hurt me, but all he did was hurt Katniss. In so many ways. If Roids or One's boy tells anyone, or talks about it Snow is going to find out and make the arena even more hellish for my Bug. I really wish the ban on slapping the hell out of tributes was never put in place, or was at least put in place after I slapped Peeta back to the stone ages. He's so fucking stupid. I truly hope he learns extremely quick to keep his damn mouth shut. The elevator stops but doesn't ding for Four's floor and I step out into a little hallway, which I follow, all the way to another door that opens to the living room. Right next to the TV. How've I never seen this door before? I step out and look at it for a moment and then notice that its designed to blend into the wall and a giant painting of the ocean. You sneaky bastards. I don't see a handle so I just leave it cracked open so I can find it later. 

I make my way to my room as quietly as possible, to not disturb the hopefully sleeping tributes. Hopefully they're both in their own damn rooms and not hiding naked in my bed. I really don't want to find Nerissa in my bed again. I'll have to skip the shower if I do. I open my door and do a quick victory dance when I see that my bed is completely empty. I was not prepared for if it weren't. I grab a pair of grey sweat pants from my dresser drawer along with a plain white t-shirt, a pair of clean black socks and pair of boxer briefs. Outside of what the Capitol pick out for me to wear, I really just wear the same thing every day. 

I make my way to the bathroom and strip, I turn the shower on to the hottest it'll go. I get in and take the fastest and hottest shower of my life. I scrub my skin raw with my scrubby gloves. I found these not long after I started my "job". I'll never feel like I'm clean enough but these make me feel like I'm close enough to it. I rinse off and get out, grabbing the towel hanging next to the shower door. I scrub my head with the towel to get majority of the water out of it, then bring the towel across my chest and arms to catch the water droplets there. I towel off my legs as well and drop the towel to the ground afterwards. 

I put my clothes on quick and then grab my socks and lean back against the sink to put them on as well. Finally done, I pick up the towel and place it in the bin for dirty clothes next to the door right outside the bathroom. I walk to my closet and pull out my sea foam green with paint splatter slides, not wanting to wear real shoes the rest of the night. They're also insanely comfortable, the company 'NIKE' know exactly what they're doing. 

I grab the solid black backpack I keep in my closet. I normally keep it to hide my favorite snack and presents for when I head back home, but for now it's empty. That is till I start placing jeans, a day time shirt, another pair of socks and underwear in it. I grab the black hoodie in my closet and put it on before I head over to the table next to my bed and reach into the drawer and pull out two pieces of rope. They're about a foot long a piece. I place those in the front pocket of the back pack and then reach back into the drawer for the candies I have there. Putting them with the rope, I zip up the bag and then place it on my back. 

I make my way out of my room and then back to the living room, thankfully going completely undetected. I get to the "painting on the wall and see that the door closed the rest of the way sometime while I was in the shower. "Shit." I really like that elevator. I huff and then walk over to the kitchen to just take the stairs. I open the door as quietly as possible, hoping to finish my little mission without getting noticed. I close the door behind me and wait for a moment to try to listen for any movements. I don't hear anything so I begin my way up the stairs. 

I take the steps by two, having long legs really comes in handy when you're trying to go fast. I use the raining along the stairs to help pull myself forward just a little faster. It's only eight floors to Twelve, so it shouldn't take me to much time to get up there. I take a second to catch my breath at Nine's floor having just made it up 20 flights of stairs. Only 12 more flights to go, so after I catch my breath I begin my climb again and make it to Twelves floor by 2:36. "Not bad" I tell myself.

I take a deep breath and then open Twelve's kitchen door and pop my head in. I don't see anyone so I step inside. Closing the door behind me, I turn the pantry. I find the bottled water, there's ones in the fridge but I personally prefer room temperature water, and place a few bottles in my bag. Zipping it back up, I begin to make my way to Katniss' room. 

Her door is unlocked and there's a light coming from under the door. I knock lightly on the door and wait for the muffled "Come in" before opening the door. 

I open the door and find Katniss sitting on her bed, in what look to really soft and comfy sleep clothes. She looks up from the book in her hands and gives me big smile. "Hey there." She tells me softly with a small smirk in the corner of her lips. That has got to be her favorite thing to tell me, probably because every time she's said it I've squeaked. 

"Not getting a squeak this time, Babycakes." I inform her with a smile, walking towards the bed. 

"Damn, maybe next time." She chuckles. She's absolutely beautiful. Her hair is down, there's a smile on her face just for me, and a twinkle in her eye. She's radiant.

"What are you still doing up?" I ask her as I sit down at the end of her bed.

"I couldn't sleep. I tried, but my mind is to awake." She shrugs to me, then she looks to my shoulder, "What's in the bag?" Her head cocks to the side and her eyebrow arches. 

I take it off and bring it to sit in front of me, I open it and pull the front of the bag down. "Just clothes for in the morning." I explain the items in the bag. I zip the bag back up and put it back on my back. We look at each other for a moment and then I interrupt the silence in the room. "I want to show you something." I stand up and then walk towards her closet. I go all the way to the back and then to the shelf. I grab three blankets and then I see one of the hoodies placed in the closet for her. I grab that as well and then throw it on the bed for her when I walk out the closet. 

She's still sitting on the bed but she wears a confused look on her face now. "Put that on." I tell her and then place the blankets on top of the desk next to her door. I turn around and see her pulling her hair from out of the back of the hoodie I threw to her. Her hoodie is just plain black, while mine is black and has two little tridents crossed in an 'x' on the top left corner, close to my shoulder. "We match." I comment. 

The blush that comes to her cheeks is the most adorable shade of pink I've ever seen. How have I gone through life without this human? 

"Grab a few pillows off the bed." She turns around and does what I ask her. She grabs the two big pillows on top of the comforter and brings them over to me. "Thank you, Sweetness." I take the pillows from her and then stack them on on top of the blankets. "Ready?" I ask her. After getting a confused nod from her, I pick up the blankets and pillows in one motion and ask Bug to open the door for me. since my arms are currently filled to the max. 

We walk into the hallway and then I lead her into the kitchen. I show her and then ask her to open the door in the corner. She does and then we walk into the stairwell. I tell her that we're going up and then we walk side by side in comfortable silence. We make it to the final door at the end of the steps and I warn Bug about the door flinging open before she goes to open it for us. 

I can tell the second the wind hits her because I hear the small gasp she lets out, the wind cold and harsh up here on the roof. I chuckle and then follow behind her as she exits the building. This is the closest to being outside she'll get, till she's out the arena. I place the blankets and pillows on the chair next to the door and watch as Honeybee walks over to the edge of the building, looking over the side down to the city. 

I take the time that she's looking over the edge to put together what I had planned. I start by taking the big, but surprisingly light, benches up here and putting them all together to form one big bench, up against the wall. My backpack lays against the wall next to the benches at the ready. I lay out the biggest and thickest blanket across the span of it, and it fits perfectly. Then I put the pillows at the top of the benches, laying the two other big, thick but not as thick as the first blanket, on tip of each other. I take a step back to admire my work and then look over to Bug. 

She's still looking in the distance at all the lights that make up the Capitol. She's leaned over the side, arms crossed as she leans on them. I walk up behind her, the wind hiding my footsteps. Well, I thought the wind was hiding my footsteps, because she starts talking when I get within hearing range of her. "How can a place so beautiful be so disgusting?" She asks, turning her head to me. 

I go to stand right next to her, close enough that our shoulders almost touch. I shrug my shoulders and say, "I guess it just goes to show that appearances can be deceiving." Not only talking about the Capitol. She looks at me and looks like she understands that I'm not just talking about the Capitol. 

"You know what my dad taught me?" She looks back over the Capitol when I cock my head to the side in question. "It's really cheesy and I'm pretty sure he stole the saying from someone else but he would always tell me that "The eyes are the window to the soul, Katniss." She dropped her voice to a weird 'masculine' voice and we both laugh after she says it. Her nose crinkles and it's so damn cute. We quiet down and she continues talking. "I've never been one to be impressed by looks. My mom has so many naked men and women on the table back home, I got so numb to it." She looks up to me and see my eyes wide and confused. "She's the closest thing the Seam has to a doctor!" She quick to supply me with that very important bit of information. 

"Okay, that makes sense. So much sense. Had me worried for a moment there." I comment and then nod my head to her to continue. I can see what she wants to say is important to her. 

"Well I took what he said to heart. I've always looked to a person's eyes to get the truth from them. People lie so much, for no reason sometimes. Peeta's a liar when he talked to the girls at school. Gale's a liar when he tells me he told me that everything was going to be okay at the mine collapse. Hay's a liar when he says he hasn't had anything to drink. You're a liar." I look to her in confusion. I have never lied to her. I don't want too, I have no need too. What does she think I lied about? "You lie every time you're on television. Every time you're around anyone from the Capitol." She states and then looks up to me. "Your eye does this little twitch in the corner there." She brings her hand up to my face and points to the corner of my eye, right below the end of my eyebrow. 

I know exactly what she's talking about. I've tried to get it under control but I can't control it. It's just a thing. When Caesar asked about it one year I just told him some bullshit about my eye twitching when I were tired. I never thought I'd be called out on it and know I can't talk my way out of it. I can't and don't want to lie to Katniss. I don't want to disappoint or let her down. I look down towards the city. "I have too. Don't have a choice in it, Bug." I know I know I sounds grim and dark, but it's all I can think of to say. 

"I understand. I'm not trying to say you're wrong for lying. I'm just saying I know you're not as happy as you seem to be. Not as dumb as you try act. I see you watching everyone and everything. I see you look for exits, and count the people in the room, look at all available objects to grab. I'm just saying, I know you're not what you've been made to look. I see your eyes burn bright with anger any time someone brings up the image of "playboy" I'm more than positive is something the Capitol has put on you. I know most of your smiles aren't real." She comes to stand close to and loops her arm with mine. She holds it close to her and leans her head on my shoulder. She had put her hood at some time because that's what my cheek hits when I lean my head on her, at a loss for words with what she's saying. 

"You're a sweet man, Finnick. You're so caring, and loving. I haven't known you personally for very long, but I've heard what you've done around the districts. Haymitch is a talker around me when he's drunk. All the "donations" to the families that lost their kids to the games. The food donations to the lower districts. I've seen how well you take care of Mags, the small things you do for her like helping her out of a seat or helping her on and off platforms. I've seen your heart Finn, and it's pretty damn beautiful."

I want to cry. I want to hold her close and never let her go. Never in my 22, almost 23, years of life has anyone, not even my mom, said anything like this to me. She knows what I do here, maybe not exactly what I do, and doesn't judge me? Doesn't just go with the popular opinion of me that the districts have? This beautiful soul standing next to me is most definitely the best thing to ever happen to me. She thinks I'm sweet, and caring? That my heart is beautiful? 

I turn to her and turn her so she's facing me. I take her face in my hands, her cheeks warm. I look in her eyes, looking for any type of lie or half truth, just to come up empty. She means it, she means every word she said. How can someone so beautiful, inside and out, see me for something more than just the "playboy, sexy, Victor that has someone different on their arm on every single piece of paper that is published about him"? I lean in close, till our foreheads meet each other. Steely grey meets bright grass green in a warm gaze, exchanging untold love and affection. Her tongue comes out to pass against her bottom lip, while her hands come up between us to lay lightly against either side of my neck. Her fingers brushing the hairs at the nape of my neck. 

Our noses brush each other and swallow hard. I stutter and search for words but can't think of anything that could come close to how I feel after everything she's confessed to me. So I just ask one simple question. 

"Can I kiss you?" 

I get a quiet yes and small nod before we're locked at the lips. Her lips are soft and the kiss is light and tender. Filled with emotions we can't explain. I pull her close to me and take my hands from her cheeks to circle them around her waist. Her hands shift the the back of my head and her fingers tangle in my hair. 

We break the kiss, eyes still closed and breathe each other in. "You are truly the most amazing person I have ever met. I'm happy you're in my life and you allow me to be in yours. I haven't been this happy, smiled this much, or felt as understood and accepted as I have since I met you. You're one of a kind Katniss Everdeen. I hope you allow me to be apart of your life for a long time to come." I open my eyes and finally find the words to say. The smile I get in return is blindingly beautiful. 

"I'm happy you came into my life, Finn. You're truly a gift, Hun." She tells me with her smile firmly in place. 

I could really get used to this. Haymitch's plan really needs to work out, I want to make sure to give Katniss a world she can feel safe in. We just have to get her through the arena first, then we can plan and fight for a better future. 

I've fallen wholly and fully in love this woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:   
I liked this chapter, got to give Finn and Kat a version of the rooftop scene/chapter I had always wanted. Let me know if you guys prefer longer or shorter chapters. If I'm doing okay or if I'm absolutely murdering this story. 


	8. Chapter Seven - Peeta No

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To me this chapter was eh, a filler really but I needed something to get to the last day of training and coaching and then the everything else. Also want to say a thank you to griffinpuffgirl for the first and only comment on here. I appreciate that you took the moment to comment. And a thank you to the 9 of you who've left a Kudos. I appreciate you guys, I really truly do. 
> 
> On another note, I ripped off my entire fingernail on my left ring finger. So it's ever so slightly hard to type without all 10 fingers, and a big bandaid that I'm allergic to wrapped around it. Please let me know if you guys see any mistakes so I can fix it. My finger being fucked shouldn't affect the story, and I really don't want it too. I tried to get all the mistakes but again it's not betaed so I know I didn't catch them all.

Firefly and I spent hours in each others arms on the roof. After a few more long kisses, she had jumped out of her skin worrying about cameras, but I explained to her that there aren't any up here. I went in depth and told her all the spots within the tower that don't have cameras, in case she ever wanted a moment truly alone.

I introducing my Bug to salt water taffy, and it's her new favorite thing. I promised her that she could have as many as she wanted when she come out the arena. She looked skeptical everytime I said told her something about when she came out of the arena, but I just told her to keep the faith. Speak what she wants into existence, even if it doesn't work, it can't hurt. 

When we started to talk about training I had commented on her atrocious knot tying skills. We laughed for bit but then she said "I bet you think you can do better, don't you?" and then it was on. I pulled both bits of rope out of my backpack and handed one to her.

I told her to “show me the best she's got," and after she struggled for a full minute after I finish my monkey's fist knot. My knot was mostly decorative and it doesn’t really have a purpose but I’ve always liked it. Then she showed me her mess of rope with a pout on her lips. I swear she’s the cutest thing ever and she doesn’t even know it. I took the mess of rope from her and helped her undo them, then showed her a few simple ones, my hands guiding hers. 

I learned how calloused her hands are. Then she showed me a few of her scars along her hands and arms. She showed me the longest one that went all the way from her wrist to the inside of her elbow, telling me that she got it falling from the tall tree in the town's center. And the one that she got on her finger from trying to pickpocket a peacekeeper when she was younger and a pocket knife caught along the inside of her middle finger. When I asked about the one along her eyebrow, she just told me it was a story for another time. 

She had gotten quiet after telling that, so I decided to show her some of my own. The teeth marks around just above my wrist, and hard to see unless you're looking for them, from a catfish when I went noodling as a thirteen year old. I showed her the reconstructed part of my left ear that the Capitol did after I won. A fishing hook got caught in the shell of my ear and ripped it in two about a year ago, that was a fun experience. I also showed her the one scar from my games that the Capitol couldn't erase. The slice that went across my right thigh from Kelan from District Six. The move that almost killed me. When she traced it, there was a tingle, a warmth that ran through me. 

Bug sat in front of me, in between my legs, leaned against my chest. I had arms around her waist, hugging her around the middle. My chin rested on her shoulder most of the night, looking over to help her with her knots. Neither of us wanting or able to sleep, having tried. Then I just held her as we watched the lights go out in the city and the sun rose. The pink and orange sky beautiful on her face. We finally got up to go back inside and downstairs when the time came to an hour before training was supposed to start. 

We left the blankets in place, after I informed Bug that there's a forcefield around the entire roof. I didn't explain that it was because one year a tribute jumped to their death to get out of the games but I didn't think she needed to hear that part. I think she understood without asking anyway. No one comes up here, and if they do, they don't stay long. We leave the pillows as well. Once the Avoxs see that they're missing, they'll be replaced. "Which we'll be able to add to our little hideout" I told her trying to convince her to help me hoard pillows. 

The first and only thing she seemed to catch was "Our little hideout" which she parroted back to me trying to hide a smile. "I like the sound of that." She had told me, just before kissing my cheek. My cheek truly hurt from how much I've been smiling lately. She had already walked over to the roof's exit by the time I came out of my musings. 

I jog over to her, backpack on my back, and place a quick kiss on her cheek. Then open the door and let her through first. She waited till I walked through to take my hand in hers and squeeze lightly. We smile at each other for a moment, then begin a slow walk down the stairs. We do so in silence, but as I've come to the conclusion, it's never an uncomfortable one. Being around Katniss for this long, has me on a high I've never felt. 

We reach the door to Twelve's floor and I hold the door open for Bug to walk through first. Before I'm able to walk through I hear Peeta's voice and pause. "Katniss, we have got to talk." He begins talking without giving a Bug a chance to agree to or deny the "talk". "You've got to stop being around Finnick,he's not good for you. He's trying to use you! Don't you see he's just a whore? He's slept with all of the Capitol! It's literally plastered everywhere. He's just trying to get in you pants." He finishes his loud rant, which really who needs to be this loud this early in the morning? 

"Peeta, you're so fucking stupid. You really, truly, and honestly, need to learn how to just shut the hell up sometimes. Or at least wait until you know the person you're talking shit about isn't following right behind the person you're trying to talk shit too." I open the door wider and walk in behind Firefly. This boy truly has got to be the most clueless person I've met yet. The boy doesn't know basic skills, such as just shutting up. "Maybe if you spent half the time you've spent obsessing over me and actually getting to know me, you'd see I'm not some, what'd you call me?" I've walked halfway to Peeta by this point. "Oh, yeah "whore." You'd see that I'm someone who's won not just in the arena, but the Capitol too." I've backed him into the the dining table, just hovering over him. I don't touch him, my hands are clasped behind my back, because for one it's a "no no" and two I don't think I have too, to get my point across. 

"Do you know what power I have Peeta? I could make you disappear and no one would care. Not a single soul would come looking for you. It would be like you never existed." I, of course, can not do this, but he doesn't know that. "Please, for your own good and safety, keep my name out of your mouth. Don't even think of me. I know how hard this is going to be for you, since I'm all you think about, but please try. I don't want to have to cash in any of my favors, yeah?" I raise an eyebrow at him. "Nod if you understand me, Peeta." I tell him, since words are failing him at the moment. I get a nod from him and finish with,"Good, cause I really truly do not want to have this conversation for a third time. If I do, things will not go well for you." I give him a big Capitol smile and turn back to Bug. 

She's got her hand raised to her mouth and it looks like she's trying to hide a smile. She clears her throat and takes my outstretched hand. We walk away from the table and Peeta, who's about to have a mental breakdown over seeing our hands clasped together. When we get to the hallway, we pass by Haymitch's door, which he's standing in. He's not even trying to hide his laugh, "Again, you can't kill the boy." he comments as we pass by, arms folded against his chest, leaning on the door frame. 

"He doesn't need to know that." I call over my shoulder. Both Firefly and Hay get a laugh from it, so point Finn. 

We finally make it to Kat's room and the first thing I notice is that there's more pillows on the bed. "I told you." I turn to Bug with a shit eating grin on my face. She just rolls her eyes at me and gives me a mocking face of 'whatever', then gives me a kiss on the cheek on her way to her dresser. 

"I'm going to take a shower and get ready for training. I'll see you tonight?" She finishes with a question, that she should already know the answer too. 

"Of course, Doodlebug. You should already know that." I come up behind her to give her a hug around her waist and a kiss on her cheek. She smile up at me and gives me a short sweet kiss on my lips, then she's walking out of my grasp, towards the bathroom. 

"I'll see you tonight, Finn." One last smile and then I'm left alone in the room. The sound of water hitting tiles soon filling the room. The smile on my face almost a permanent thing now, and it feels good. Even with the ache in my cheeks, it still feels good. It's a very nice change in pace. I quickly strip from my hoodie and sweats to my more accepted day time clothes. I leave my backpack on the ground next to Bug's dresser, I'll get it later to replace the clothes and replenish the candy shortage going on there. I put my slides back on, because I don't have my actual shoes, but I doubt many will notice.

I make my way out of Katniss' room and towards Hay's. I walk in without knocking, and thankfully he's fully dressed. Wouldn't bother either of us if he weren't but it's a lot easier to start a conversation if he is. "Are you sure that Dumbass in there isn't an actual threat. In any way? Because his loud mouth sure seems like one." I start asking Hay, leaning again his closed bedroom door. 

"It's starting to seem like one, isn't it?" He sighs in obvious frustration. "He didn't seem like he was a loud mouth back home. He was a quiet kid, a loner to be honest. I'll try to see if I can get it through him that he needs to shut up. Since he doesn't seem to respond to you saying it." He chuckles at the end. Shaking his head he stands from the bed and begins to walk over to me. "Aren't you a little under dressed?" He ass me, pointing towards my casual clothes. 

"The ones I've got today don't worry much about what I wear. Should be fine, but if not then I guess I'll be naked quicker." I laugh under my breath, the hate seeping through. "I'm so tired, Hay." I look him in his eyes, and I know he knows I'm not talking about not being able to sleep. 

"I know, I know. I'm working on getting it together. One more year, then we end it. For good." He puts his hands on my shoulders and I just nod. 

"I really hope it works. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this shit up if it doesn't" I tell him. Then I huff out a deep sigh and stand up straight, his hands falling from my shoulders. "I'll see you later Hay, I'm going to take the stairs down." He just nods and lets me walk out and away. 

I walk past Cinna, who's the only one in the common area of the floor, and give him a nod of my head. He tips his cup of something to me in a non verbal greeting. I walk out the kitchen door and make my way down the stairs, thinking about all the possibilities that can happen in the next few weeks. There is a very real possibility that Katniss will die. That Snow won't allow her leave. I could watch another woman I love die on screen for others entertainment. There's a chance that I may lose either my sister or mom. There's a chance Snow may have just had his fill of me and have me die "mysteriously". 

Or everything can go just fine and everything will happen how we want it to. I'll just practice what I've been preaching to Bug and keep thinking positive outcomes. Negative only brings negative, less disappointment when you think everything is going to fail, but that's no way to live. 

I make it to the ground floor without even noticing it. I shake my head to try to clear my head, just like an etch a sketch I had as a child. I make my way out into the lobby and out the door. I get into the car that waits for me daily, at all times, because it's not like Snow to miss a moment to torture me. I make my way to the first person on my long list of buyers of the day. 

I don't get a moment to do anything but fuck and drink water all day long. I had a granola bar in the car that I ate but that was barely anything. I need food. I need a hug. I need something other than water to drink. Maybe some apple juice. Apple juice sounds nice right now. 

I'm dropped off in front of the Tribute Tower and slowly, oh so slowly, drag my aching body to the elevators. At this point I don't even care that it's the slow tribute elevator. I just lean back against the wall and slowly let my body sag to the ground. It's going to take me a minute to get up when I make it to my floor but that's okay. I just need to get a shower before I drag myself to Bug's room. 

The elevator moves slow, almost slow enough for me to drift off to sleep, but I manage to pop my eyes wide open when the elevator dings and opens. Just like I thought, it takes me minute to get my strength to stand, but I finally do it. I take a step out of the elevator and see Mags hobbling her way over to me. She doesn't talk but she does come to me and hug me around my middle. I hug her back and we just stand there in embrace. Mags has been like a second mom to me, she's always made sure I was okay. Her hugs are always warm and inviting, but it's not the hug I want right now. 

We break apart and I let her know what I'm doing. "I'm just going to take a shower, then I'll be up in Twelve." My voice quiet and low, not wanting anyone else to accidentally hear. I get a sad nod from her and she squeezes my arms and then heads off in the direction of the kitchen. I'll just raid Twelve's fridge when I get up there. I get to my room and grab a random assortment of sweats, a shirt, and boxer briefs. I get into the bathroom and crank the hot water up all the way, and climb in. I scrub my skin till it's raw, like normal, and then stand under the hot spray of water. I hold back all the emotions in me, not wanting to let them out. Never wanting to let them out, because once they're out, I don't know if I'll be able to stop them.

I get out when my fingers start to prune and quickly dry off, scrubbing my hair with the towel, not caring how it looks. It'll do what it wants anyway. I dress and then walk into my room. I look at my bed and it looks so inviting, but I know a bed that is even more so. I sway on my feet, beyond tired, and walk back to my door. I put my slides back on and walk out towards the elevator once more. Trudging in I press the button for Twelve and lean back against the wall. I don't let my body slide down this time, knowing I won't get up if I do. The elevator ride is longer this time and I do actually fall asleep this time. My head tipped back and arms back against the railing, the only thing that's keeping me upright. 

I almost jump out of my skin when the elevator dings and the doors open. I push off the wall, and make my way towards the kitchen. I need food, the only things I've had in the past 24 hours being the salt water taffy and granola bar. I take a quick look in the pantry and find nothing already made. I move on to the fridge and find a few oranges. I grab two and peel them both before I begin eating them. I finish them quick, not even remembering if I chewed, but I throw away the rinds and then rinse off my hands of the sticky oranges. 

I make my way to and down the hallway to Bug's room, and knock lightly when I get there. There's a light on under the door so I'm pretty sure she's up. I don't hear anything so I knock again, a little louder. Not loud enough for it to echo down the hall but loud enough for someone to hear if they weren't on the bed in the room. I hear footsteps coming up to the door in a violent fashion. I brace myself for what might be coming to the door. 

"Peeta, I swear. I'm not Finnick, I'll just deck you motherfucker." Is what I get before I feel small hands on my chest and said small hands pushing me with all their might. I'm going to be honest, even if I weren't as tired as I am, I still would have been pushed back that foot of space. "Wait." I hear it register in her voice when she realizes that I'm not Fuckface. 

"Hey, Bumblebee." I say lightly with my hands up in mock surrender. "I swear I didn't do anything to get decked. I mean I'm pretty sure I haven't. I may need to be decked." I ramble on nonsense waiting for her brain to come to realize that I'm Finnick. I stop when I have her thin arms wrapped around me. I bring my arms around her shoulders and tell her, "here, let's go in the room." She nods and we part for a moment to walk into the room. We close and lock the door and turn out the lights, before walking over to the bed and getting in on what became our respective sides. "What was that about, Babycakes?" I ask her as we're laying down. 

"Peeta's just been an annoying asshole all day. He's been trying to wedge himself up my ass since you left. I have no idea what he's up too but I don't want to be apart of any of it." She informs me as we sit down in the bed. Before I'm able to say anything she tells me," But I don't want to talk about him, there's too much of him right now anyway. How were you today? Did you get all you needed to get done, done? You look beyond tired, Hun." She turns concerned eyes towards me and I don't know how to process it. No one ever really gives a shit about my day. No one ever asks, or gives the thought to ask. 

I can't tell her anything that I actually did today. Not only is it a rule not too, but I don't want her to look at me differently. "I did. And to describe my day? Long. So long, Bug." I end with a twinge of sadness in my voice. I turn my head towards her and see her give me a small smile. Not a smile of pity, or sadness or even happiness. Just a smile of appreciation, like she's just thankful that I just let her in on how my day was. 

"Come see." She opens her arms to me and nods her head back, signalling me to go to her. I scoot over to her and she brings us to lay down. My head lays on her stomach and my arms come around her waist. Then her hand is brushing through my hair, and I swear I've never felt anything more heavenly. I don't realize it till it's already started but I feel myself let go of a few silent tears. This angel really does care about me.

"Sleep, sweetness. You've earned it." Is the last thing I hear before I drift off into the most comfortable sleep I've had in a long while. 


	9. Chapter Eight - The Warning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before this chapter is read I do want to put a warning that I do get a little graphic in this chapter. There's mentions of blood, abuse of both sexual and physical nature. I'm going to mark where it starts and ends with a line break if you'd like to skip it. I don't want a single person to be uncomfortable or get upset or thinking those bad thoughts by reading anything I write. 
> 
> Other than that little bit we should be good till the arena in a couple of chapters, where there's obviously going to be death and blood and all that. 
> 
> Happy reading my Gremlins!

I can't remember the last time I slept and dreamed of nothing. I can't remember the last time I slept through the night. Then again this is the first time I've slept in the arms I trust, someone I love. Also the first time I've had my '20 pounds of hair' played with till I fell asleep, and only Bug knows how long after that. I take in my body's situation without moving, not wanting to disrupt the probably sleeping Firefly under me. I say probably because last time she definitely wasn't asleep, only felt like she was. 

The first thing I notice is that I'm not wearing the shirt I was when I fell asleep. I wonder how that got off. Did I take it off or did Bug? The next thing I notice, is that Bug's hand is still entangled in my bronze hair. The weight of her hand on my head is more soothing than I anticipated. Her other hand is settled between my shoulder blades, under the blanket she must have pulled over us somehow. I'm still wrapped around her midsection, so it doesn't look like we moved much, if at all through the night. 

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?" This woman lives to make me jump out of my skin. She laughs lightly at the squeak that leaves me, because why wouldn't she drag another squeak from me? "You also snore a bit, not too loud but it's there." She finishes after she was done laughing. 

"You're so mean to me." I shift my face upwards and pout at her, giving her my saddest face possible. She rolls her eyes at me and shakes her head at me. Then she starts to scratch at my scalp and my eyes all but roll back in my head. "Maybe not all that mean to me." I amend my previous statement. Her beautiful, hearty laugh just makes the moment all much that better. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with this woman, for as long as she'll keep me. "How did my shirt come off by the way?" I ask after she quieted down. 

"That damn shirt." She shakes her head once more and her eyes get big like I'm not going to believe what she says next. "Remember how I said you talk in your sleep?" rhetorical question. "Well, you decided to ask me if the sharks in the ocean needed shirts, took yours off, and then told me to cloth them with it. With your single shirt, you were going to have me clothe every shark in the ocean. It was adorable." She assures me of this, but my cheeks turn bright red. I was really out of it last night. "Then you pulled the blanket over us and laid back down on me, and asked me to not let you go. And I promised you I wouldn't. Now that you're awake I'll promise it to you again. I'm not going to leave you side, Sweetness." She brings her hands to my cheeks and holds my face in the most tender caress. "I know we haven't known each other for long in person, but it feels like I've known you my whole life. I honestly don't know what I would do without you. You make me happy. Even in the face of legitimate death, you make me happy, and I thank you for that."

I, Finnick Odair, was at a complete loss for words. The only thing my mind could conjure up was,"You're my favorite person." Bug swipes her thumbs under my eyes and I didn't realize I'd let a few tears out. She smiles at me and I see understanding in her eyes, there's no way this amazing human cares so much. 

"You're like my second favorite person. Prim's number one." She answers the question my face must have asked for me. 

"Good. She should always be number one." I nod in agreement, then turn my head to the clock wall and see that the last day of training, before the tributes are scored tonight, starts in an hour. "We should get up and get something to eat before training." I comment as I go to sit up, Bug's hands falling from my face. She nods and sits up as well, blankets falling to our sides. She stands up before I do, and before I can get up, I notice something else. "Is that my hoodie?" 

She pauses and then looks down to the two tridents on the top left of her chest. She draws out a long "maybe" while moving her hand to the top left corner of the hoodie. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She fronts after I raise an eyebrow at her. 

"It looks better on you, Bug. Keep it. You do it more justice than I ever could." I tell her honestly. She's all but being devoured by the hoodie, it's so big on her, but I really like the thought of her finding comfort in my jacket. She gives me a blinding smile and leans down and kisses me on my cheek. Warmth spreads throughout my body, but the blush is on her cheeks. Damn, she really has my whole heart in her hand. 

"Thank you, it's just," she trails off and I give her a moment to find the words,"It reminds me of you, smells just like you. Like you must wear this a lot." I shrug my shoulders, but in reality it's absolutely my favorite thing to wear. I wear it rain, shine, snow, or heat wave, but if Firefly wants it because it reminds her of me, I have no problem with parting with it. I can always get another one. 

"What does it smell like?" I ask her curious to what makes her feel represents me. 

She brings the hoodie sleeves to her nose and breathes it in. She takes a moment to ponder the right words to describe what it is she smells. "Salt, sugar, and something like," she pauses to take another deep breath,"strawberries." She nods to herself, "yeah, strawberries." She smiles up to me and drops her hands back to her sides. The sleeves are bunched at her wrists till she pushes the sleeves up her arm. Then they bunch at her elbows and she's officially the cutest thing on planet Earth. 

"That sounds like me. I use a lot of strawberry shower stuff. And they're my favorite fruit, and candle scent, and taffy flavor, and-" I get caught off and silenced with a kiss. 

"So strawberries." She confirms. I just nod back at her with a dopey smile plastered on my face. "Come on, lets go get food." She steps back from the bed and takes my hands in hers, pulling me with her. She twines our fingers together and pulls me towards the door. I break away momentarily to grab my shirt that was flung to the side. I pull it over my head and push my hand through my hair trying to get it to sit on my head a little flatter. I loved Bug's hands in my hair, but I also know that it's probably standing on end and looks like I got electrocuted. I hear her trying to muffle her laugh behind her hand and look over to her. 

"So mean." I give her a mock wounded face and she just shakes her head at me and opens her door to walk into the hallway and towards the common area. I smile and follow her out after slipping on my slides, closing the door behind me. I walk out into the common room and the first thing I hear is 'fucking hell' being muttered under I think Hay's voice. I look up to find the source of the voice and see that it was in fact Hay, but he was looking over to Peeta who was pinned to the table. His shirt was being wedged into the table with a fork. "The fuck?" I ask myself under my breath. 

"What is wrong with you?" Firefly asks Peeta as calmly as possible. 

"I didn't mean too." He looks like he's nearly in tears. Why is this boy so sensitive, yet start so much shit? 

"You grabbed my arm and tried to yank it towards you. Are you sure you want to continue to lie? There's multiple forks on this table." She asks and then looks over to the arsenal of silverware on the table. We should tell the Avoxs to stop leaving the table set, it's not very safe. 

"Why are you grabbing her?" Haymitch takes the words out my mouth, is he insane?

"I-I-I-I" He's stuttering trying to find a reasonable answer as to why he's trying to grab Katniss. 

"Sp-sp-sp-spit it out Junior. We ain't got all day." Hay gets impatient. Both Katniss and I burst into laughter. This man is a gift. 

Peeta visibly gulps and then takes a deep breath then mumbles his answer under his breath. Low enough for only Bug to hear. She gives him an "Are you stupid?" look and then shakes her head at him. 

"He slept in my room last night, dumbass. Not that it's any of your fucking business." She rips the fork from his shirt and tosses it to the side. She rolls her eyes then makes her way to the kitchen. I look back to Hay and we shrug our shoulders to each other.

"She didn't kill or actually harm him. Still good." Hay makes the comment and chuckles under his breath. I do the same and make my way over to where Katniss is in the kitchen. I lean my hip against the counter next to her while she looks in the fridge for something she wants to eat. 

"Where are the oranges?" I hear her say under her breath. My eyes go wide and then I slowly stand up straight, ready to back away at any moment. If she asks me if I know what happened to them, I can't lie to her. I'll have to tell her I ate them last night. "Who pushed them all the way to the back?" She questions the air, and I say a little thank you to the Avoxs that put more in there this morning. She turns around and tells me to grab her two bowls. I do so and she takes them from me and places the oranges in my hand. 

I take the oranges over to the little breakfast bar connected to the kitchen and start to peel the oranges for her. I take a paper towel and start to lay out the chunks after I've peeled them. Just as I start on the second orange Bug comes to sit next to me. She's filled both of the bowls with grapes, honey dew and strawberries, both have about the same amount till it comes to the strawberries. She smiles to me and hands me the bowl with more strawberries in it. 

"Thank you." She tells me as she reaches for the already peeled orange on the paper towel. After she eats a slice she states,"There's not a lot of these running around the Seam. They're hard to come by." She smiles down at the orange before putting a few more slices in her mouth. She continues with," My dad used to get me one on my birthdays. He'd get Prim figs for her few birthdays before he passed. I picked up getting her them after though. It's a nice little tradition." She nods to herself then over to me. The twinkle in her eye when she looks over is what makes her story all the more special. 

"You truly are a treasure, Bug." I inform her. She shrugs her shoulder and then goes back to eating her bowl of fruit. She tries to fight it but I say the blush on her cheeks. I can get used to this. To sitting and eating together, to telling each other stories, to waking up next to her in the mornings. 

Yeah I can get used to this. I hope it'll be a possibility to get used to all of this within the next few months. When the games are over I'm able to roam the districts as I please. I've never really had a reason to do this. So I've always just stayed in Four with my family. When (hopefully) Katniss gets out I'll be able to visit Twelve as much as I'd like. It'll also give me a good excuse to plot and plan with Haymitch and Jo, using the guise of "getting to know the new Victor" without drawing too much attention to ourselves. 

Bug and I finish off our bowls of fruit and wash our bowls afterwards. Bug heads off to her room and I make my way to the door in the kitchen after telling her that I'd see her in a little bit. I make eye contact with Hay, who'd been looking over to us with bewildered eyes the entire time we ate, and have a silent conversation of "we need to talk". I get a nod from him and then make my way down to my floor. 

I bypass the empty kitchen and pop up behind Mags at the dining table. I know I didn't scare Mags because it's pretty hard to sneak up on a Victor, plus she probably knew I'd be coming up behind her sooner or later this morning. Nerissa sits up in her seat and tries to shove her chest out, but I just roll my eyes and look over to Ondine. "Remember to you guys get scored today. Y'all are going fourth and then coming back here. Short training day but you guys get a bit more time to think about what you're going to do in the interview with Caesar." I'm directing this to both of them but I refuse to look over at Nerissa. "I'll be working with you tomorrow on your ideas and strategy. I'll be back here to see y'alls scores tonight but I'll be gone right after." I let him know and he nods to me in resignation. I could see after the Chariots, he knew he wasn't coming out of the arena. It's depressing but it's also better in some kind of way. He's got a little bit of hope to get out on pure luck, but he knows inside that he won't. 

These games need to end sooner rather than later. For the moment though I have a short list of clients to get through today. The list is always short on scores night and interview night, giving me time to actually talk to my tributes and see how they do on both fronts. Gives me and all the other "workers" a chance to see how we'll fair on money put towards the tributes. 

"I already ate so I'm going to get dressed and get going, okay?" I look down to Mags and nods to me, garbling out an 'okay, be safe' to me. I lean down and kiss her forehead and then head off to my room. 

I get changed into some nicer clothes, the buyers today being of a slightly higher class than the ones last night. I go into my closet and grab one of the several dress bags that my stylist made for me, she was given the order the year after I won my games and has kept to it since. This bag has a long sleeved black button up shirt, navy blue slacks, and a simple black belt. I grab my black dress shoes and get dressed quickly. I go to the bathroom and find my brush, doing a pass through my hair and styling my hair with the gel in the jar behind the mirror. Deeming myself presentable enough I walk out the bathroom and towards my door to leave. I grab my sunglasses on my way out the door, closing and locking it behind me. 

Off to some of the higher paying buyers of mine. 

******************

I lay in the bed of the wealthiest of my buyers, the last one before I'm done, unable to move. Body sore, throbbing and bleeding. I lay their broken, not in touch reality, ignoring my surroundings to try to get some type of semblance of who I am and where I am. Having been knocked unconscious and then all but waterboarded for the past two hours, I'm a little out of it.

I look to my wrist and see the beginning of where bruises will take place, blood crusting to the inside of my arm. Small cuts littering my body, not enough to kill me but just enough to sting every time I move. I bring my tongue out to pass against my dry lips just to wince at the cut there, copper filling my mouth and assaulting my taste buds. My thighs and back on fire after being turned onto it after my buyer used my leather belt to strike them for majority of the night. I close my eyes tightly as I feel the bed shift, the weight of a person coming off of it. The sound of clothes rustling and a belt buckle being fastened fills the quiet room. I don't open my eyes again till I hear the bedroom door open and shut, signaling that they'd left. 

Opening my eyes once again, I look to the bathroom door and see that it's still open with the lights on. I gather all the energy I can muster up and drag myself into a sitting position. Not caring about whimper that escapes me, but I do try to muffle it for the sole purpose of not trying to draw attention to myself. I clench my teeth and heave myself into a standing position, using my momentum to limp to the bathroom. 

Finally reaching the door I grab onto it the steady myself from the fall I was about to take. I step just those few more feet into the bathroom and as quietly as I can close and lock the door behind myself. I'm not supposed to but I couldn't give a flying fuck at the moment. I need a minute. 

Leaning up against the bathroom sink for stability, I turn the hot water on and let it run. I'm going to have to use it to clean myself but it also gives me noise to focus on and not get too lost in my head. I finally look up to the mirror to assess the damage and find myself wrecked. 

There's a small cut along my hairline, that I didn't feel was there, that had been bleeding and dripping down my temple to my jaw. It looks like they were trying to split my left eyebrow as well, with how it's swollen and throbbing and all. Thankfully my they left my nose alone, I hate having to reset it. My bottom lip is fat, red and has yet to stop bleeding. I spit the blood that's collected in my mouth into the sink, watching as the running water washes it away. I feel the tears trailing down my cheeks before I'm able to try to stop them. 

******************

This was not a normal violent appointment. Someone knows something and they're trying to send a message. I don't know if it's Snow or if it's one of his right hand men, trying to take care of shit before anything came to fruition. Trying to impress the boss and using his most influential toy to do it. No matter though, Snow or someone else, this just makes me angry. That's probably what they want though. Angry and irrational, making mistakes, give them more information than what they have. They underestimate how determined we all are to end this. I'll hold my feelings in, all my anger, everything, till I can put it to good use. Focusing on the sound of the running water I break my thoughts and focus on the here and now. Which is my bloody face. My jaw tense and my gaze steely, the flow of tears stop and I focus on getting out of here. 

I take a washcloth from under the sink wet it and start to dab away the blood on the side of my head. Rinsing and wringing out the bloody water from the rag when needed, just trying to get the most visible of blood and cuts and scrapes under control. I'll be able to get the rest when I get back to the tower, I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be. 

I stare at myself in the mirror after cleaning my face as best I could, looking only in my eyes, reminding myself of who I am in my mind. 

I am Finnick Odair. I am the winner of the 65th Hunger Games. I have a sister named Meredith. My mom is a chef. My best friend is Johanna Mason. I was born and raised in District Four. I have found someone to love me as me, and her name is Katniss Everdeen.

I am strong.

I am a survivor. 

I nod to myself and do my best to walk out the bathroom and not limp. I see my clothes on the chair across the room. I walk over to it as best I can and quickly get dressed. The quicker I get my secret, the faster I can get out of here and go see Jo for some help. Getting my shirt on proved to be more painful than my underwear and pants, but I get it on regardless. Bending down to get my shoes on had me feeling like I was being lit on fire, so I abandoned the task. I hate walking barefoot but there's no way I'm getting my shoes on right now. I make my way out of the bloody and wrecked room to down the hall, where I know my abuser is at. He only gives me my secret sitting at this one small table in his garden, over a cup of tea. 

Because why not act like he just bought me and spent the last few hours trying to destroy me? I roll my eyes at the thought and sit down at the table, giving my best fake Capitol smile. I refuse to let him see how much he broke me down. "Well that was fun, wouldn't you say?" I ask him in the most pleasant tone I could give. He looks over to me and looks me up and down, the look in his eye tells me he thinks I'm out of my mind. Unfortunately for him I'm actually not. 

"Quite so." He states and takes a sip of his tea. 

I hum and then cock my head to the side as I look into the cup set for me. There's something that was silently releasing bubbles at the bottom of the cup. This bitch. Maybe it's him that mad at me any not Snow or Snow's lackeys. Why is there a pill at the bottom of my cup? I'm just going to not comment on this, I need that secret. "Have anything for me Mr. Edmund?" I ask him, hinting that I want the damn secret already. 

"I don't have much for you Mr. Odair. I just have a warning of next year. You Victors aren't going to like it, but I'm sure you'll be fine." He turns to give me a wicked smile. What in the holy fuck is that supposed to mean? I don't let the confusion show though. 

"Well if you don't have anything else for me, I should get going." I say getting to my feet. He grabs my hand and stops my mid way up, my thighs burn and twitch in effort of keeping myself steady. 

"Don't you want to drink your tea?" He looks nervous that I hadn't touched the cup. What the fuck is going on?

"I'm not one for tea. I tend to stick to orange juice and water." I give him a Capitol smile and get up the rest of the way. I need to get out of here before he just straight up shanks me. "Till next time" I say with a wink. I feel beyond grotesque but I have to keep up appearances. 

I gather my shoes and my glasses on my way towards the garden gate that leads out to the car waiting for me. Opening the door and collapsing into the backseat, I let the driver know that I was done and just needed to go back to the Tower. He doesn't acknowledge me and just drives. I slide and situate myself till I have my back completely off the seat, I feel like I'm being stabbed over and over by red hot fire pit pokers. 

I feel myself tearing up from the pain but swallow it all back, I can deal till I get to a safer place than a bugged car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally going to be a 7k chapter but I decided to split it up in two. Let me know your thoughts!


	10. Chapter Nine - Shoot Your Shot

I must have passed out because because the next thing I know, I'm in Haymitch's arms, being cradled like a child. 

"Ouch." I quietly say, head nodding back. I don't have the energy to stay awake, and pass out once again. 

The next time I wake up I'm laying face first on a soft bed. It smells like Christmas. Mom loves decorating for Christmas, everything smells like cinnamon and Douglas firs during the prewar holiday that my district decided to revive for morale. How long did I pass out for? "What year is it?" I ask, moving to get up. Only to be pushed back to the bed gently by a hand on my shoulder. "Mom?" I ask if it's her. I feel hands prodding at my back, two sets of hands. "Mer?" I ask if she's there too. No one else is really this tender with me besides them, and recently one other person but I can't really put a name to the face I see in my mind. 

"Finn, what the hell happened?" That's Hay's voice. 

"Haymitch? What are you doing in Four? Did mom let you in the house? I know Mer wouldn't. She'd smell the whiskey and turn you around out the door." I cut off mid chuckle to groan in pain. "Everything hurts, Hay." I whimper out and lay my head back down on the mattress, my head feeling heavy. "Don't let mom see me, she'll freak out." I say into the mattress.

"He thinks he's back in Four. What the fuck happened, Hay? He's never come back like this." I hear Jo, did Mom let her in too? What's she doing in Four? What's going on?

"I don't know but this isn't good. This... This right here is a message. A dangerous one." I hear Hay tell Jo. I want to look back but whatever they're doing to my back feels nice. Something in the back of my mind tells me that it didn't feel like that recently. 

"Finn? Can you look at me? Please?" I open my eyes slowly to see Jo laying down next to me, her face close to mine so she doesn't have to talk loud. I'm thankful for that, my head hurts to much for loudness. "Hey, Bud." She smiles at me, a thankful look in her eyes.

"Hi." I whisper out, my throat dry and scratchy. I could really use some water. 

"Can you tell me what happened today?" She asks me gently. Her hand goes to my hair and she pushes it out of my face. Her hand feels nice but it feels wrong. Feels like someone else's should be in place of hers. 

"I think I went to my appointments. Everything's fuzzy right now. I don't know how I'd be going to appointments if it's Christmas and I'm in Four, but I think I remember appointments." I tell her quietly in a confused voice. I'm so confused as to what's happening right now. 

"Finn. We're not in Four and it's not Christmas. We're in the Capitol for the Games. They haven't even started yet. Your driver buzzed Mags to come get you out of the car and she sent Hay and I." She looks above me, to who I assume is Hay. "Finn, what happened at your last appointment? We had to get the repairing salve for you. You bled through your clothes, and then through Hay's." I've never seen her this concerned. 

The last few hours come flooding back to me. Edmund and the rope, the belt, the tea, the secret that was more of a warning than anything else. I push myself up on my hands and knees, despite Hay's protests. I start to breathe heavy and fast, trying to get control of the floor of information going through my head.

I'm not in Four, I'm in Seven's floor. More specifically Jo's room on the Seventh floor of the Tribute Tower in the Capitol. I look under me where I was laying and see blood spots outlining where I laid. There is a Finnick shaped blood ring on Jo's bed. I look between Jo and Hay and take deep breaths to control my breathing. Now isn't the time to pass out from lack of oxygen. I need to tell them the warning I got. 

"I got a warning in place of a secret this time." I state as I finally calm myself down. "Edmund was my last appointment." I don't need to add any context to that, all the victors know who he is. He's the biggest donor to keep the games going. "When I asked him for my secret he told me and I quote 'I don't have much for you Mr. Odair. I just have a warning of next year. You Victors aren't going to like it, but I'm sure you'll be fine.' I don't know what they're planning for the Quarter Quell but I have a feeling we're all fucked." I finish and drop my head into my hands. "What did you guys give me? My head is so heavy and I feel like I'm going to throw up." I question them cause this is getting irritating. 

"A mild sedative so you'd stop squirming. Now what in the holy fuck does any of that mean?" Jo asks with wide eyes towards Hay. 

"Can you hand me that water?" I ask Hay quietly, my head still in my hands. I can feel my back slowly bringing itself together, it must have been worse than I thought. 

"Could they be tripling the tribute pool for next year? Could they be going younger with the pool? What they fuck are they up too? What are do they think all of us hate? Why does he think it won't affect Finn?" Hay shoots off questions to Jo, completely ignoring me, he's deep sea focused on figuring out what the warning meant. I sigh and come to terms that he's not going to be handing me the glass. 

"Didn't that happen already? For your games?" Jo asks Hay. "They wouldn't do the same thing twice. Would they?" 

"They only doubled the pool for my games. We had forty-eight tributes that year, yours truly included." He corrects her thoughts. While they bounce ideas and thoughts each other I decide to try to crawl across the bed towards the glass of water. "Younger tributes would make the games go by to slow, the kids wouldn't kill each other fast enough." He strikes out his own ideas. "You don't think." He stops mid sentence.

"They wouldn't. The Capitol would go ape shit." Jo states with a voice that says she's hoping she's saying the right things. 

"What better TV? Everyone would watch. The districts and the Capitol would be glued to their TVs." He make the comment with a voice that says he's beyond pissed off. I finally make it to the edge of the bed, to the glass and take a sip. This water is godly. I take another big sip, trying to sooth my dry throat. "They're going to pull from the Victor pool. We're going back in." 

It was at that moment that I start choking on the water I just sipped and lose my balance face planting into the now damp carpet next to the bed. I'm still trying to clear my throat of the water, trying not to die of drowning. How ironic would that be? Finnick Odair, who was born in a pool of water, drowns on a sip of water after receiving upsetting news. That would be a headline for years. 

"What the fuck did you just say?" I finally stop coughing and climb back up the side of the bed, kneeling next to it not having the energy to climb all the way back on. 

"I could be wrong. We'll have to wait for the announcement for confirmation, but that's the one that first with Snow and the Capitol the best son." Hay answers me, his face reflecting the anger I hear in his voice. 

"No. We're done. That was the deal. We survive against 23 other kids and we're done. We're out. That was the deal!" I make the comment slowly getting louder as I went. 

"Are you out? Have you felt like you were out since your name was called? Since you came out the arena? Since you were forced into the sick and twisted prostitution ring Snow has? Are you out, Finn?" Hay asks me quietly with a stern voice. 

I stare back at him not voicing my answer. He knows my answer. No I'm not out. I've been under Snow's thumb since the second that camera caught my face when I was called out. "Why?" I question him instead. 

"He probably wants to remind all of us that we're never truly out? Wants to finally get rid of me? I am the one and only victor of Twelve. Who knows? But this warning gives us a chance to change the plan and make it work. Gives us a whole year to come up with a back up plan if this is truly what's going to happen. Gives us time to plan and prepare. This gives us the time frame we needed. We can make this work." He's trying to convince us, but it looks like he's trying to convince himself just as much as he is us. "We have to make this work." He looks like he's thinking hard about something. "He knows Katniss is coming out." He whispers. His eyes are suddenly huge and his eyebrows are to his hairline, "He's going to try to intervene in the games. He's going to try to kill Katniss. If she gets out, she gives Twelve hope. She gives all the lower districts hope. He's going to kill the hope." He sits there stoic. 

"No. No don't say that. Don't do that Hay. No. We're going to stop this. No more analyzing. No more talk of the Quell. No more talk of Snow trying to purposely kill the only good thing in really anyone's fucking life. Stop. Let's just get through these games. Please. I can't take a whole lot more right now. I really can't afford a mental breakdown right now. So lets just stop. For now. Please." I beg them. I'm still down on my knees so I look up to both of them and give them my best pleading face. I truly can't take a mental break right now. Not today. Not with everything that's happened in the past 12 hours. 

"Fine. I'm not saying we won't be talking about this but we'll stop. For now." He points at me while he says this. I mouth the words, 'thank you' to him and he just says "Just come here. Let me see your back. We need to get to our floors for the scores soon." I nod and use the energy spike that went through me at the mention of the scores being announced soon. I get back on the bed and lay between the two of them. Both Jo and Hay prod at my back and rub more salve in certain places that apparently needed more attention till they deem their work acceptable.

I crawl backwards on the bed till I get to the edge and stand up. I look for my shirt I had on and examine it. I really did misjudge how bad off I was when I left Edmund's. I look to Jo and Hay and state the obvious. "I can't wear this. Are the tributes on the floors? Cause I'm going to be half naked. The less gawking the better." I ask them. I don't need eyes on me right now. 

"Everyone but Eleven and Twelve should have been scored already by the time we got you in there. Twelve should either be done, or wrapping up with Peeta by now," Jo answers me. I nod to myself. 

"Wouldn't be the first time the people of the Capitol has seen my chest. At least it's just my chest this time." I say, thinking back to the time one of my buyers decided to sell pictures of an appointment to a magazine. My bare ass was plastered across Panem. 

"That's the spirit! Now get out my room. I need to clean all this up. I'll be up in Twelve after my trib's scores are announced." She directs that at Hay and the next question to me. "You going up after?" Hay and I look at each other and he bursts into laughter. 

"Shut up." I tell him. "Yeah I'll be up there." I shove Hay's shoulder trying to get him to stop laughing. 

"Finn? In Twelve?" He barks out in loud laughter again, "Nooo. Never." He says as sarcastically as possible. 

"Am I missing something?" I look over to Jo and see she looks beyond confused. 

Hay throws an arm around my shoulder, I'm still sore but not nearly as sore as before. "Finny boy here hardly leaves Twelve. Did he not tell you? He's been sleeping in the room with our dear Kat." He's such a traitor. Jo's going to kill me for not being the one to tell her. "I've honestly never seen either of you smile so much. It's nauseating." He adds. 

I look over to Jo and see her jaw dropped basically to the floor. I give her a sheepish smile. "Why am I always the last one to know anything? This is bullshit. What did all this start? You know what? Don't tell me now. Tell me later. I need to get the smell of blood out of here. And if y'all stay here any longer I'll have a bigger mess to clean up." She's got her hands in fists on her hips and a smile on her face that's telling both Hay and I that we need to leave. Right now.

"Okay, time to go." Hay says what's on my mind and we both turn in sync towards the door, speed walking to get out the room. We close the door behind us and make it through the common room awkwardly to stand at the elevator door. Everyone from Seven is sitting in the common room but Jo, the tributes, stylists, and Blight sit on the couches staring at Hay and I. Probably because Hay is in an undershirt covered in my blood, and I'm bare chested holding my blood soaked shirt in my hand. 

"Fight night?" Blight questions us.

"Yep." Hay answers. 

"Jo win?" Blight questions again but with a smirk this time.

"What do you think?" I question him pointing to the several blossoming bruises on my torso and then to Hay's bloodied shirt.

"She's a vicious one." He shakes his head with eyebrows raised and eyes wide. 

"That she is," I agree with him whole hearted. Even if it wasn't Jo that kicked my ass, she's still kicked it at other times in the past few years. She's small and fast and very flexible. I hate sparring with her. 

I hear the elevator door ding and open so I bump shoulders with Hay and we step back into it without turning. "We'll see you later I'm sure!" I call out as the elevator doors close in front of us. "He's not wrong. Even if it wasn't her this time, remember last year when she decided she didn't like being pushed and just fucking annihilated me on the mat downstairs? Had bruises for months from that shit." I shake my head and hang my head back, I run a hand through my hair thinking it must look like a mess from earlier. 

"Bruises like you've got on your back right now?" Both Hay and I nearly kill ourselves to turn around at the sound of Katniss' voice ringing out from behind us. "The fuck happened to you guys? Why are you covered in cuts and bruises? Why are you covered in blood? Are you bleeding? What the fuck?" She's shooting off questions left and right as she steps up to us, she lifts her hand to my jaw and moves my head around to examine it. Searching my face for the small scratches and no doubt bruises there that have bloomed and blossomed since I left Edmund's.

"Hi." I tell her, feeling instantly like a weight was lifted off of me the second she was within arms reach of me. I don't reach out to her tho because as soon as she finishes moving my head around she moves over to Haymitch.

"'Hi' isn't an answer, Odair." She starts looking over his arms trying to find a source for the blood. "What the fuck happened?" She looks over to me, her face set to anger but her eyes are riddled with concern and confusion. 

"You're not going to find any blood coming out of him. It's all mine." I tell her in a quiet voice. Lifting my shirt in my hand towards her for her to examine it as well. 

"Had a rough night whoring around?" All three of our heads turn towards Peeta, who's in the corner and doesn't seem to realize that he'd just made that comment out loud. 

"You are so, do lucky I don't have any silverware." Bug makes the comment as she walks over to him. "You'd be severely injured if I did." He's standing straight up, backed up against the wall. She puts her hands on his shoulders on his shoulders and nods to him than shrugs. "Well, more injured I should say." Then her knee is brought up to make direct contact with his testicles and dick. He crumples to the ground gasping for air, Hay and I cringe and do an uncomfortable shuffle. "You should really. really learn how to keep your mouth closed." She tells him before turning around to us. 

"I can't tell you. First rule of fight club is we don't talk about fight club. Except when we're listing rules about it." I lift my hands in surrender to her and take a step back from her when she cocks an eyebrow at us in question. "I really can't tell you Bug. I would if I could but I can't. Anything else in the world you want to know I'll tell you. But not with this." I beg her with my eyes to not prod. This elevator is riddled with ears and eyes. Plus Peeta's loud mouth is over there probably trying to memorize every word I say. "Please." I ask her one last time. I'll tell her one day, and I'll make that promise known and verbal soon but not in this elevator. 

She drops her arms to her side and then comes to stand in front of me. "Are you okay, at least?" She asks me instead and I nod.

"I am. I'll be okay, I promise." I out my hands on her shoulders and squeeze them lightly. She searches my eyes, probably looking for a lie. She'll never find one though. 

"Okay." She tells me quietly, taking my word and trusting me. The elevator doors behind me open and she comes closer to me to give me a hug. I wrap my arms around her and give her a tight squeeze. 

"I'll be up after Four's scores are announced okay? I just need a shower and change of clothes. Maybe a shirt would be nice too." I tell her, making her huff out a laugh with my comment about the shirt. 

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the first tribute in history to get a Zero." She mutters under her breath.

"What was that?" I ask her, hoping she'd repeat herself. 

"Nothing!" She's quick to say and then break the embrace. She smiles at me and then pulls Hay along with her out the elevator. Peeta follows behind them, glaring at me the whole time, almost tripping over his own feet and into the elevator wall. Why must he be like this? There's got to be a real reason why he's like this. I don't get it. 

He finally makes it out the elevator without harming himself further and I press the button to go to Four's floor. Hopefully Nerissa isn't in the common room yet and I can sneak into my room without anyone noticing me and my naked chest. 

The slowest elevator in existence makes its way down, ever so slowly and dings at Four's floor. I take a deep breath and slowly walk out into the common room. Thankfully everyone is gathered in the kitchen and talking among themselves, snacking. I all but run down the hall and to my room, ever so quietly closing and locking my door. I rummage through my drawers for clothes, my go-to sweats underwear shirt and socks. All gathered in my arms I head to the bathroom for a quick shower. 

I'm gentle with my body when scrubbing it, not wanting to reopen any of the fading cuts that Jo and Hay worked so hard to take care of on me. I shampoo my hair three times and smooth conditioner through it twice, trying to get it to feel somewhat like it's not plastered with sweat, blood and cum. 

I rinse everything out my hair and the random fluids off of me along with the suds I just lightly scrubbed myself with. I carefully step out of the shower and onto the mat in front of it. I grab the towel I put on the sink on wipe my face off, being careful of my eyebrow and hairline, not wanting to aggravate the wounds there. I ever to carefully scrub the water out of my hair and just leave it how it stands afterwards. Taking care to dab the rest of the water on my body gently, I hate having the slimy feeling salve on me and don't want another rub down. 

Thinking ahead to not wanting to bend down twice, I toss both my sweats and underwear to the ground at my feet. Bending down, I pull my underwear up to my thighs before pulling my sweats on. I make sure my feet are through the ankles before standing up straight, hearing my knees, ankles and back pop and crack like a glow stick. I feel like I'm 90 with all my aching joints and muscles.

I slip my t-shirt on and wince as I bring my arms up over my head. My shoulders were over my head most of the day, and my body doesn't like it. I pull the hem of the shirt down over the band of my sweats after I get my arms through the sleeves. I stand there for a moment just trying to let my body rest and stop throbbing in random places. When I come to terms that I'm probably not going to feel okay for at least the next day or two, I pull open the mirror to reveal the cabinet behind it. Grabbing the apricot and coconut hair treatment oil, pump out nickel sized amount into my hand to work through my hair. 

Finally done in the bathroom, I gather my bloodied pants, shirt and wet towel to put them in the dirty clothes hamper. I go to my dresser and grab a pair of black socks, sitting on my bed to put them on. I don't need to be falling over myself, hopping on one foot right now. 

Going to my closet I grab one of my back up backpacks, since I keep forgetting to grab my other one from Bug's room. I stuff it full with two other pairs of sweats, two pairs of jeans, I think I grab four or five regular T-shirts, and several pairs of underwear and socks. I won't have to go to another appointment, thankfully, till either both of my tributes die or the games end, whichever comes first. I doubt I'll be back on this floor for much other than Mags after the interviews. For the past few years Hay and I have just gone to Seven to sit out the games, but I'm more than positive that Jo and I, and maybe a few others, will be setting up shop in Twelve this year. 

I shrug and think to myself that as long as no one tries to sleep in Bug's bed with me, it should all be fine. On occasion Cash hits on me and tries to persuade me into a bed she's in but it has become more of a joke than anything over the years. It happened once so my first time wouldn't be with one of my buyers but that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. 

I put my slides on and then grab a pair of my green Chuck Taylor's to bring with me. I grab everything I need and make sure that I've grabbed all the rest of the salt water taffy I had, for Bug. Walking out my room, closing and locking the door behind me, I make my way to the common room where everyone has gathered to sit on the couches facing the TV. I walk over to the elevator and put everything just below where the call buttons are. 

Coming back over to where everyone is at, I sit next to Mags on the love seat throwing my arm behind her on the back of the couch. "Which district is he on?" I ask her quietly.

She garbles back that he hasn't even started yet, nodding over to the TV. Just like she said, Caesar is droning on about previous scores of Victors past. He's at Haymitch's score, which was a nine, the highest score that Twelve's gotten. Caesar sighs and says that Haymitch was a beacon of hope for Twelve that burned out to soon. He looks sad for a moment and then his smile is back and bigger than before as he say,"And on to the scores of our newest tributes!" 

He jumps right in and starts off with the same quick history lesson of One that he gives every year. Then he's giving the stats. First of the boy Marvel, who gets a standard Career 8. Then the girl Glimmer, who gets an 8 as well. Caesar prattles on about how those scores are just "marvelous" as he says every year. He moves on to Two, history lesson then scores, giving both Roids and little Roids a 10 and a 9 respectively. Little blood thirsty psychopaths. 

He moves through Three and I drone out a bit, trying to listen to what Mags was telling me. I'm one of the only people who are around her enough to actually understand what she's saying, so I have no worry of anyone being able to actually listen in on what we're talking about. As long as I keep my answers vague that is. 

"Are you going to be in Twelve from tonight on?" She garbles out. 

"Yes, ma'am, but I can be here within minutes if you need." I assure her. 

She hums and then looks at me for a long minute, smiling at me with her crooked smile. "She makes you happy." Her comment has my cheeks twinge pink. 

"Very. I hope I do the same." I tell her honestly. Mags nods to me in what looks like approval.

"I'm glad. You deserve it, Finnick." She reaches a hand up to pat my cheek. I smile back at her, she truly is my second Mom. 

"Hush you guys, we're up." Flay, Ondine's stylist, says to us. 

Caesar just finishes his little traditional history lesson of Four and then Ondine's picture pops up next to his face and Caesar reads off the score of 5, which is better than I had though he'd get. 

"We can work with that." I look over and tell the ball of nervous energy. There's not much I can spin for his interview with a 5 but at least it's not a 3. Then Nerissa pops up next to Caesar's face and the score of 7 flashes below. I look over and see her staring over at me looking for approval. "Good job, we can work with that as well." I tell her and then look between both her and Ondine. "We have all day tomorrow to discuss what we can do for your interviews with Caesar. Make sure to brainstorm on what you might feel most comfortable with. Caesar will try to help you through the interview if you need but it's always better to seem confident in your words." I tell them. There's not a lot of thinking I need to do on what they'll be doing. Ondine will go for the innocent angle and without a doubt in my mind Nerissa will go for the sexy angle. 

"I'll get them to bed, you go on." Mags garbles out to me. 

"Are you sure?" I ask her and she just nods her head towards the elevator. "Alright, I'll get going. Remember to buzz up if you need me. Don't think you're being a bother, if you need me call me." I make sure to tell Mags. She almost never calls me because she thinks she's just being a bother to me. I don't know how many times I've walked into her house to find her climbing a number of precariously stacked thing to get something from a top shelf. I think she strives to try to give me a heart attack. 

She rolls her eyes at me and then pushes my shoulder till I relent and finally get up. I hold my hands up in surrender and shuffle away from the couch. I tell Mags that I'll see her later and walk off to the elevators, pressing the call button to go up. The elevator doors open as I'm bending down to grab my shoes and slinging my backpack on my back, and I shuffle my way in. The elevator door shut and begin its ascent up the tower. On the way up it pauses and dings open at the floor for Seven. Did Caesar get done with three districts already? This elevator really is the slowest in the world. 

"Don't you dare, B! I'll knock your ass back to Seven if you do!" Jo yells back over her shoulder, but laughs after she's all the way in the elevator. She looks back at me and begins laughing harder. "You don't want to know." She informs me, only after she's caught her breath. 

"You're probably right." I shake my head at head with a chuckle huffed under my breath. "Caesar done with Seven's scores?" 

"He's on Six, but Blight's been telling me that he'd take care of the tributes this year. Plus I'm done getting all your blood put in a corner of my room to be replaced, so I figured why not just head up to Twelve early?" She shrugs her shoulders and folds her arms. 

"Thank you, Jo. You really are my best friend and I appreciate you. Along with everything you've done for me in the past few years." I put my free hand on her shoulder. I really don't tell her enough how much I appreciate her and her friendship, I should really do it more often. 

"Yeah, well. You're like a brother to me, so don't worry about it." She shrugs me off but I know she takes it to heart. She's not one to show her emotions to people but like Bug said, "The eyes are the window to the soul." And Jo's eyes show appreciation and love shining. 

The elevator doors ding open and we're finally able to step out onto Twelve's floor. We step out into a relatively quiet setting, I mean no one is running around on fire so that's got to be a good sign. Right? On the other hand it's entirely to quiet. There's no clicking of heels on tile from the escort, tink'ing of a spoon on a glass cup from Cinna. Peeta's not crying like a little bitch in a corner of the room. It's like we've stepped on the wrong floor or something.

"Hello?" Jo calls out as we walk out of the elevator and into the common room. 

"So that's why it's so quiet." I make the comment as we come upon the scene of Peeta duct taped to a kitchen chair and everyone else is sitting on the couches talking with each other. "Do we want to ask?" 

"Eh. We're trying to help him with his problem off not keeping his mouth shut." Bug is the one to answer me, and she does so with a beautiful smile. Oh, I've missed that smile today. I honestly feel better now that I've got her in my sights, and am able to hear her voice. I must have been staring because I almost fall over when Jo shoves at my arm with her shoulder. 

"Anyone in there? Finn?" Jo's voice has me snapping back to the here and now. "You with us again?" She looks at me and cocks an eyebrow at me, smirk set firm on her face. 

"Yeah. Yeah I'm here, I'm just going to go and put my things away. Be right back." I say quickly and then make my way towards Bug's room. I set everything down next to her dresser and toss my shoes next to the door. Making my way out of the bedroom and to the common area, I sit next to Bug and toss my arm around her shoulders. She maneuvers her way to snuggle into my side, and I place a kiss on her forehead when she's settled. 

"Are you feeling okay? Not going to bleed onto the couch right?" She looks up to me with a passive face but deeply concerned eyes. 

"There's no way I can't be okay with you right here next to me." I whisper back to her. 

"Would you like some crackers with that cheese? My God, Finn." She ducks her head into my shoulder and I can feel her shaking with laughter. 

"I'm serious though!" I squeeze her closer to me laughing along with her. I'm going to be a wreck when she goes into the arena, I can see it now. 

Everyone makes small talk and Jo and Hay get into a arm wrestle, while we wait for Twelve's scores to be announced. Peeta sits in his chair, tape on his mouth, seeming like he wants to make a comment about something every now and then. His eyes look beyond pissed off, but I guess he should learn to stop pissing Bug off. 

"And for our last District!" Caesar starts off and we get quiet and turn towards the TV to pay attention. "Twelve. Our mining district. One of our most important districts some might say. We've seen them struggle but they remain strong! True survivors there, if I do say so myself!" He laughs and if I didn't know he was on our side, I'd say he were making fun of the District. But he knows as well as us Victors that Twelve is the key to overthrow the Capitol. 

"Alright let's see what our fiery tributes scored this year! First up is Peeta Mellark! Peeta scored himself a," Caesar pauses to open up the envelope with his scorecard, "an 8! I must say this is a surprise! I do believe this is the second highest score we've seen come from Twelve!" We all turn towards Peeta in his chair. He himself looks surprised. Then he looks smug so we all turn back to the TV and ignore his muffled shouts for us to turn around to him. I'm pretty sure every set of eyes in the room rolls to the back of their head at the sound of his pitiful sounds. "Let's see what his district partner brought us! Katniss Everdeen!" 

"Probably the lowest score ever seen. The first zero to ever make an appearance." I hear her make the comment under her breath.

"Oh come on, you couldn't have done that bad. As long as you didn't just sit in the middle of the room and stare at them, I'm sure you'll get a good score." I reassure her, but she look doubtful. She's set in her mind that she did bad. I wonder what she did to make her think so low of herself. 

"Katniss Everdeen brings us a score of," pause to take the scorecard out. Instead of immediately reading out the score he looks at it sideways and then looks off camera to ask something. It looks to be along the lines of "is this the real card?" He shakes his head and then turns back to the camera with wide eyes. "I don't believe it, we have a record score for Miss Everdeen!" 

"Told you." Firefly tells me under her breath.

"Our final tribute of the night, Katniss Everdeen, brings us a score of 11! The highest score of any tribute in any district! I do believe we'll have fun hearing from her tomorrow night! But for now, I must bid you all a good night. Wow." Caesar mouths the word 'wow' one more time before the screen goes black, from Cinna turning it off. 

All of our heads turn to Bug, who looks just as surprised as the rest of us mid you. The floor is quiet for just a moment before Effie is up, clapping and squealing in praise. It snaps everyone else out of their tunnel focus of Bug's face and Haymitch asks what's on everyone's mind. 

"What the fuck did you do?" 

Her mouth opens and closes a few times before she closes it one last time, shrugs and then tells the room. "They weren't paying any attention to me. Not a single one of them. Soo I took the bow they had, one of the metal, razor sharp tipped arrows and shot the apple out of their roasted pig's mouth." 

"You did what now? I don't think I heard you right. You shot an arrow, a long point stick used for killing people and animals, directly at a a group full of Gamemakers?" Jo comes to kneel in front of us as she asks these clarifying questions. 

"Not at them but at the apple in their pigs mouth, yeah." Bug shrugs once again, apparently not knowing how to respond to everything that's happening right now. She was just dubbed the highest ranking tribute in Hunger Games history. She has people in awe of her surrounding her. She's probably thinking about the Careers that just ranked lower than herself that will now gun after her in the arena. She's probably on the verge of freaking out, right now. You'd never tell by look at her face though, not even her eyes right now are showing any emotion right now. 

"You, Katniss Everdeen are my hero. Do you know how many times I've wanted to do something similar? I like you. I really really like you." Jo looks like she's about ready to steal Bug away from me she looks like she's found her new best friend. 

"Just have to shoot your shot when the opportunity presents itself." She informs us. She looks about ready to be sick so she stands up, my arms falling to my lap, and tells us that she's going to go lay down. Then she's out the room and down the hall in seconds, her bedroom door slamming shut echoing down the hallway. 

"Well fuck." I say as I look between Jo and Hay. "This is going to be a shit storm," is the last thing I say before I get up and make my way out the room and down the hallway to Bug's room. 


	11. Chapter Ten - Look At Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to give you guys an extra long chapter since I'm a whole 3 weeks late on an update. I am so truly sorry for taking so long. I've been in a benadryl coma for the past few weeks. You can't sneeze if you're in a coma! brought to you by Benadryl! 
> 
> I also wanted to get the interviews out of the way. 
> 
> I hope this chapter was okay, and you guys liked it! Let me know if there's any mistakes or problems. Also let me know if you guys have any ideas or thoughts. 
> 
> Till next time my Gremlins!

"Why didn't they just give me a 0?" She's not facing me when she asks me this. She has impeccable hearing, because I'm not even in the room yet and the door made no noise opening up. She's standing in front of the holographic, forever moving wall, that is currently displaying a forest swaying in a soft breeze. "Never mind. Don't answer that. It's not too hard to figure out."

I step further into the room, moving towards her. I stop just before I get to her, within an arm's length behind her. Giving her space, but also giving her the option to come to me if she wants. I don't want to overcrowd her, but at the same time I want to let her know I'm here for her. 

"I'm such a target now. I could have skated by, under the radar. But now? They're going straight for me. I know it. That 11 made me a target with the careers. A little scrawny nobody from Twelve? There's no way that didn't piss Cato or Clove off." She drops her head into her hands and shakes it, making a frustrated sound. "I would have been better off sitting in the middle of the floor doing nothing. Them thinking I was weak was an advantage, and I fucked it up. Completely threw it away, because I was frustrated at being ignored. I'm so stupid." She finishes with. 

"You probably could have gone about the situation in a different way, but worrying about what ifs won't help, Bug." I comment. "It's not a requirement to watch the scoring, they may have walked off from the announcements. There's a chance they don't know. Not a very big one, but it does seem like the kid from Two isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, so there's hope." I shrug my shoulders and she looks up to me with a 'you're kidding right?' look on her half hidden face. I shrug once more before turning my head to see how far back the bed is from me, then turn to sit at the edge of it. 

"You're so helpful, Finn." Is the sarcastic comment I get before I get an armful of Katniss. She comes to sit sideways in my lap, her head on my chest just under my chin. I bring my arms around her waist and bring my chin to rest on her head. 

We sit in silence, our breathing the only thing that can be heard in the room. It's a much needed bout of silence. The calmness around us, the warmth between us, all helps soothe the panic and nervousness inside us. 

"What's your family like?" It's so soft I almost don't hear it.

I hum in consideration. "Well, I'm the baby of the family. I used to have a big brother, Enoch, but he was in a boating accident with my uncle when I was real young. There was a pretty big gap between our ages, a 10 year gap to be exact. He was 15 when he passed, and I can't remember much of him to be honest with you." I shrug my shoulders as best as I can with her in my arms. All I remember from Enoch was that he was really smart, he hated the Capitol, and he hated dad for leaving us. I push Enoch to the side in my mind and move on in my list of family for Bug. I know she needs to take her mind off of everything going on. 

"Then I have my older sister Meredith, who's actually getting married in a few months. She's only 4 years older than me, so we've been pretty close growing up. I'm actually the best man at the wedding. My mom is the one that's going to walk her down the aisle. And cater the whole thing. Oh I love when she makes cake, it's always so perfect. She only ever makes it for our birthdays so it has been forever since she's made one. The last one we had was for my birthday almost a year ago. My next birthday is actually during the Victory Tour." I inform her. If everything goes according to plan for the victory tour, she'll be in Four for my birthday. Which will absolutely be the best present I'll ever receive. 

"My mom and sister are going to love you. Mer is pretty derpy but she's really sweet. Mom's going to try to have you taste test everything she's going to be putting on her menu at her new restaurant. She's been saving for years for her place, refused to take any of what I tried to give her. You remind me of her. So hard working and proud and determined. I think you'll like them too." I lightly squeeze her closer to me. I can see all the women in my life just sitting in the living room back in Four, all around the coffee table sharing stories and poking fun at me. I shake my head from the thoughts, not wanting to get to far ahead of myself. If I keep letting this train of thought run wild, I'll be thinking about my very own wedding, and what a little red head, grey eyed kid would look and laugh like. 

"I think you'd like Prim." It's so quiet that I almost didn't catch it. Bug shifts in my lap a bit and then stands up. I look up to her, waiting patiently for her next move. She walks over to her closet as she starts telling me about Prim. "She's so bubbly, and always has a smile on her face. She's got this fascination with this evil cat named Buttercup, and he hates me with a passion. That orange fur ball gangs up on me with the goat she adopted." She shakes her head before she walks into the closet. "We've been trying to make cheese from the goat's milk, but she doesn't produce enough to get more than maybe two cups. Sooner or later she's either going to keel over or I'm going to have to convince Prim to let me sell her or slaughter her. I don't really want to lie to her and then show up at home with goat meat." She calls out from the closet, raising her voice so I can hear her. She's still muffled but she steps back out in no time. "I hate lying to her." She tells me, then brings something over her head. It's my hoodie. 

"I know the feeling." A smile is brought to my face at the sight of Bug in my hoodie. She really does look ten times better in it than I could ever pull off. 

The ends of the sleeves come up and over her knuckles, almost coming past her fingertips. She grips the edges of the sleeves as she walks back over to me. "Thank you." Her hands coming to my shoulders. She looks down to me with adoration and gratefulness. 

I take her hands in mine as I stand up from the bed, bringing them to my chest, over my heart.

"Anytime." 

"Remember that time, who was it? Ripper?" Hay looks over to Bug for confirmation. She gives him a nod while trying to muffle a laugh, I guess she knows the story already. "Knocked me on my ass for trying to swipe one of her bottles? I was bruised for a month! That woman has one hellova right hook." Haymitch rubs his jaw like he can still feel it. 

After our talk in the bedroom, we had made our way back to the living room. We joined the conversation and thankfully no one commented on it. Jo finally took pity on Peeta, at Effie's insistence and begging, and cut him loose of the duck tape and chair. He scampered out of sight the second he was free. We haven't seen him since, but that was about three hours ago. I wonder if he'd gone to sleep or if he's doing recon on the memories and stories we'd begun to share. We've been kind of loud so I'm willing to bet on the latter. 

"I know she does! I'm the one that taught her, dumb ass. After that one time those kids attacked her I had to show her how to defend herself." Katniss rolled her eyes, at what? I don't know. But a smirk and then a smile takes place on her face. "You were her first victim, I was so proud of her." Her hands clasp in front of her face. She looks like a proud mom right now. She must be a good teacher, I wonder if she holds little classes from all the little girls and boys on how to defend themselves. Her hands drop back down to her lap as she continues with her story. A sour, sarcastic look takes over her face. "Was not fond of carrying your unconscious, drunk ass all the way back to the village though. You have no idea how much I had to bribe Gale with to help me get you home. Whole fucking turkey, Hay! A whole turkey!" Her finger comes out to point at Haymitch.

He raises his hands in surrender. "I get you another one! Two. I'll get you two turkeys!" He bargains with her, trying take get the glare she has off of him. 

"Where the hell are you going to get one, let alone two turkeys from, Hay?" She asks him sarcastically. 

He goes to answer her but stops. Then starts. Then stops. Then starts again. "Uh." He turns to Jo, who's sitting next to him on the floor across from us at the coffee table. "Do you know where I can get a turkey or a turkey baby?" Jo chuckles at him. Which soon turns into a full blown laugh at his next questions. "Do they come in eggs? Do they come out like people do?" He looks around to all of us as we burst into laughter. "Stop laughing! She's going to throttle me!" He throws his hands up exasperated with Jo and I. "Yeah keep at it. Just know you're both contributing to my impending death by Everdeen." He sulks out, crossing his arms, pout set on his rosy face. 

Him and Jo have had maybe one too many drinks. It started with a bet and then progressed in a challenge which somehow got to a broken glass, cut and bandaged hand, and a laughing Katniss confiscating bottles of alcohol. She said they had more than enough and then had me put the bottles on the top shelf of the pantry. Both Hay and Jo being to short to reach the shelf had been an entertaining few minutes. Watching them struggle on the tips of their toes to try to reach. Too uncoordinated to climb a chair to reach was the next thing they learned. They had given up maybe ten minutes into trying. 

"Turkeys lay eggs and I have no idea where to even think to get one. I'm from Lumber, idiot. Find someone in livestock to help you in your search." Jo manages to tell him through a constant chuckle in her voice. She shoves his shoulder playfully and he falls over, laughing. 

"That's right!" He exclaims, like he just remembered that Jo does not in fact have the hook up on turkey eggs or turkeys. "Jo, I'm hungry. You hungry?" He looks over to Jo splayed out on the floor and nudges her leg with his foot. "Jo?" He leans over to look at her face. I sit up a bit straighter, as much as I can with Bug leaning on me, to see if she's doing okay. 

The room is completely silent. It's deafening. 

Then, just as I'm about to get up to actually check and see if she's still breathing, she lets out a noise that should only be reserved for heavy machinery. She starts to let out more quiet, more frequent, jackhammer sounds. I forgot how loud she snores when she's drunk. She doesn't get drunk often anymore since she died for a solid five minutes last time she went balls to the wall. "Well that's one down." I chuckle when I hear Kat make the comment under her breath.

I lean back into the couch and Bug shifts back to leaning on me again. "I should probably put her in the other mentor's room." I comment and cock my head to the side to regard Hay. "Should probably get him in his bed too. I can't carry him." Hay starts to sway a bit like he's falling asleep sitting up. "Hay!" I do a little shout to get his attention. He jolts awake and raises his hands to guard his face. "It's just Finn." I wait till her lowers his defense stance to something more relaxed. "Get yourself to bed. I'm not dragging you in there when you pass out." I repeat it once, when he looks at me in confusion. Then he slowly climbs his way to his feet. 

"Nigh-Nigh." He slurs out before stumbling his way to the hallway. Kat and I both chuckle under our breath when we heard a thud and a quiet "ow" that followed. 

"I'm going to go and put Jo in the room." Kat nods against my chest and then sits up. "I'll be right back." I tell her and place a kiss on her forehead. I get up and walk over to Jo on the floor, figuring that throwing her over my shoulder would probably be the best. She can't hit me that hard if she's half way upside down. Bending down to sit her up was easy, lifting her up to put her over my shoulder was slightly harder. She doesn't weight much but she feels like a ton of bricks unconscious and on my bruised and battered ribs and body. I try and fail to suppress a groan of pain when I finally get her on my shoulder. I take a second to get my bearings, and let my body adjust to holding the extra weight. Waving off Bug's concerned looks she's throwing at me, I walk towards the end of the hall. The never before used female mentor's bedroom is clean as can be. 

Twelve's only ever had Hay and one other male tribute from the very beginning to win at the games. I know Jo won't be disturbed in here, which is perfect. She's violent when she wakes up, always comes up swinging and biting. Not. Fun. I divest her of her shoes and jacket, and then pull the covers over her. Knowing she wouldn't want me to do anything else, I walk out and close the door behind me. 

I take a second to roll my shoulder to try to ease the pain there. I'm so thankful that I don't have anymore appointments till at least the day after the games start. I definitely feel way older than any 22 year old should. I slowly make my way back to the living room and see that it's completely empty. 

"Bug?" I call out into the open space. With no response I walk a little further into the room. "Firefly?" I call once more, stepping towards the couch. Glancing around the room, produced no Katniss. A sigh of content coming from just below me, has me jump slightly. "Oh my Poseidon. So adorable." I say under my breath, as I take in the image of the almighty and truly terrifying Katniss Everdeen cuddled up on the couch. I make my way around the couch to get the full effect. Arms trapped between her legs, cheek pressed to the arm of the couch and the smallest bit of drool slowly cascade from the corner of her mouth. "You're going to be the death of me. I call it now." I shake my head and prepare myself to pick her up. I know I won't have a hard time lifting her like I did with Jo, since I know Bug is mostly skin and bones and almost all muscle mass. 

I bend down and slowly lift her top leg by her knee, to untrap her arms, then gather both into the crook of my arm. My other arm does the same under her shoulders, bringing her close to my chest to make it easier on me to lift her without waking her. I get to my feet, Bug safe in my arms. She turns her head towards my chest and takes a breath, sighs once more then the smallest of smiles is brought to her sleeping face. I almost coo at the cuteness but hold back, not wanting to wake her. 

My steps are silent as I walk us to her bedroom. The lights in the living room running on a motion detector, making no need for me to mess with them on my exit. Thankfully Bug and I had already changed into our sleep clothes before joining the others earlier. I only have to place her on the bed and pull the covers over her when I reach her room. I brush the hair from her face after I settle her down, taking a moment just to enjoy the peace on her face. 

I move towards the bedroom door to close and lock it, stripping my shirt off on my way over. Flipping the lights off and kicking off my slides next to the door before I make it back to what became "my side" of the bed. I pull back the covers and take my place, moving towards the middle of the bed to meet Katniss' back. She wiggles herself backwards, then turns herself over till she comes to face my chest. She makes a happy noise in the back of her throat and gives me a light brush of her lips on the middle of my chest. It's not enough to be considered a kiss, but not able to be considered something else either. All I know is that it brings a smile to my face, makes a warmth spread through me, and has me tighten my arms around her. 

I won't be sleeping tonight, but I'm okay with that. As long as I've got her in my arms, I'll make it through the night. 

"The only thing you have got to remember is to smile. A small smile can do wonders on camera. The capitol is a sucker for one. Give yourself a two second count before you answer what Caesar asks you. If you get stuck, he'll most definitely try to help you out. But he can only help you as much as you help him." I take a pause to think of anything else we went over but this is the most important parts of it. "Is there anything else you had questions about or a concern over? Anything at all?" I ask Ondine, giving him my full attention. 

After relaxing in bed, cuddled with Katniss singing to her all night last night, I came down to come help Ondine with prepping for his interview. This kid is a ball of nerves but I think he'll be able to pull it off. He may even get more sponsors than the two he's got currently. I have faith in this kid to make it past the cornucopia. Tabby took over Nerissa and her questions. Just like I had thought, she's going to try for the sexy angle. Tabby almost always takes over from there with the female tributes. She had always wanted to be a stylist but was rejected and made an escort, so she took over my first year mentoring and just kept at it. She gets them walking in the appropriate shoes and collaborates with the stylists to get walking down to an art and so on and so forth. She's loves helping in any way she can, which I appreciate. 

In front of me Ondine shakes his head to my previous question of if he had any questions. "I don't think I do. Smile, count to two, help Caesar help me." He recaps and I nod to everything he says. 

"You sir, are a quick study." I give him a small smile and then stand from the couch. "Go on and get yourself something light to eat. Those lights on stage are bright and can make you a bit dizzy if you're not used to them. A full stomach and some water will help with the queasiness." I pat his shoulder and send him on his way towards the kitchen. He gives me an appreciative smile at the advice and heads off towards the appointed room. 

Hands on my hips, I bend myself backwards a bit to crack my back. Feeling a bit of tension leave me, I turn on my heel and make my way towards my room. I go to my private bathroom and lock the door behind myself. I take my shirt off to reveal the last bits of my almost fully healed bruises. They should be gone by tonight after I rub on a bit of the salve I had gotten sent to my room this morning. I take the jar it comes in and unscrew the lid, making a face at the abrasively medical smell that emits from it. It smells horrible but it's an amazing invention the scientists concocted. I just wish it were more available to the lower districts who actually need it. 

I scoop a good amount of grayish goop in my hand and smear small bits of it across the chest and ribs and abdomen. Small bits of goop here and there till it was all on me and out of my hand. I rub it into my skin and let the tingle take over my body. It's an odd sensation to say the least. I walk out the bathroom to lay out across my bed. Flopping down and sprawling out my limbs, I let my body relax into the mattress to let the medicine do its job. 

I try to keep my mind blank to let the time pass by as quick as possible, I want this gross smelling stuff off my skin as fast as possible. I let the tingles ripple through me, it never leaves my torso or goes beyond the areas it was smeared. I can feel it seep into me and start to release the pain in my muscles surrounding my ribs. I'm thankful that this stuff acts so fast, in fact. I lift my head up to see it work its magic. I watch as the biggest bruise across my left set of ribs, slowly fade from a purple to a gross looking greenish yellow to a brownish looking yellow to slowly my natural bronze skin tone. It'll never cease to amaze me what and where money can get you and leave you. 

I wait another 15 minutes before my entire torso is clear of all bruises and blemishes, save for the few scars that'll never fade or disappear. I heave myself up off the bed and head towards my shower. I feel sticky and gross and don't like it one bit. Turning the shower to a hot but not scalding temperature, strip myself of the rest of my clothes and then step in. Using my normal body wash, shampoo and conditioner on myself, then using an in shower body moisturizer to make sure that I don't dry my skin out after scrubbing myself raw of the salve and general feeling of filth. I step out after rinsing off and towel myself off, I look in my cabinet and reach for regular body lotion I have travel with me. 

Meredith has a habit of picking up random hobbies and dropping them when she gets bored, she's had this hobby of making lotions and soaps for about two years now. I hope she never gets tired of this hobby. It's so easy to just tell her what I want and she makes it happen, for basically nothing. Of course I always give her way more money than she ever asks for but that's neither here nor there. I'd rather she have the money than someone from the Capitol. 

I make sure to get every inch of myself in the amazing strawberry and mint lotion. Mer teases me about my little strawberry addiction every chance she gets, and the soaps and lotions are her prime time to do so. I'm so glad that Jo gave up on it, and Hay doesn't care enough to pay attention to it. 

I'll have to bring this up to Kat's room later tonight. My stylist team is probably going to have my skin dry as the desert after they're done with me tonight. I hate being one of the Capitol favorites, it means I'm up on stage every year without fail. Caesar asks me the same questions every year and I give him the same answers, reworded every year right back to him. He'll ask me if I see potential in this "crop" of tributes, I'll tell him there's always potential. Then he'll ask me if anyone's been able to "wrangle me down" and "put a lock on it" and I'll tell him that "no, there's just to many beautiful women to tie myself to just one" and then he'll tell me that "there's going to be one to change my mind". I'll just smile, laugh and shake my head, tell him "we'll see about that" and then walk off the stage to let him start the interviews. 

It's exhausting and almost all a lie.

I shake my head and wrap my towel around my waist and then walk out to put on some simple clothes so I can make it to the stylist's floor. I'll be able to see Bug right after I'm done getting my clothes and getting a haircut and my face shaved. It won't take long since I shave my beard off before I come to the Capitol. The only thing they ever really fuss about is my slightly too long hair. I never let it get past my ears though like Haymitch though, so they don't complain to much. The top of my hair is just long enough to brush the top of my ears. Not long enough to be a problem styling it back and upwards, but enough to make it a bit difficult. I'll be happy to get rid of the inch or two of hair. 

I toss on my clothes quickly and get my slides on, and walk out my door. I make my way over to the elevator and press the call button. Since I go to the interviews in person Mags is able to stay back and rest back here on the floor. I'm glad they go easy on Mags nowadays, even if it is only because of her stroke. 

The elevator dings open in front of me and shows that majority of the mentors on the elevator already, all dressed in similar basic clothes as myself. Haymitch is on here talking to Jo so I slide in and take my place right next to them and join the small talk. Hay gives me look like we're going to have to talk later and I nod wearily at him.

What happened now?

After I get my haircut, face shaved and changed into a black suit and tie with a dark blue dress shirt underneath, I walk out of my stylists room. I see Haymitch standing in front of my door talking to Jo. Who has a new haircut as well. As in all her hair is gone. Well, 90 percent of it. It look similar to mine, but the sides of her head are buzzed to the scalp. 

"I like the hair, or lack thereof I should say." I nod to her in approval. It really if a good look on her. 

"I got tired of them fucking with it." She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, but I can see she appreciates the comment. She's in a short cocktail dress that shimmers green under the lights. The heels she's in look like a nightmare to walk in though. 

"Let's move before the tributes get down here." Haymitch tells us just as the elevator dings open with 24 tributes and two peacekeepers that watch over the tributes when there aren't mentors around. We nod and follow behind him down the hall. He's also in a black suit and tie, but his undershirt is a dark red. Hmm. I wonder if that means they've changed up the black and grey dress and suit of their tributes as well. 

Just as were about to make it to the sitting room for mentor's and tributes for before the interviews, Hay stops abruptly and shoves us into a small room. Jo goes to fall but I catch her and bring her back to to her feet, then hold her back and close to my chest as she goes to launch at Hay. 

"I'm sorry, but we need to talk. Kill me later if you can." Hay backs up against the door after he closes it quickly and quietly, after making sure no one saw us get shoved in. 

"What do you mean "if I can?" Do you really doubt I would or could?" Jo all but growls at him.

"I mean, if Katniss doesn't kill me first." Hay grumbles out. And at that Jo pauses and tense up. I let go of Jo once I know she's not going to tear into Hay for touching her and almost shoving her to the ground accidentally. 

"What did you do?" I ask him, my eyebrow arched and my eyes searching for an answer. 

He runs his hand through his hair, which looks like it wasn't touched by the stylists by the way, and shakes his head. "Not me, Peeta. I tried to talk him out of it I really did. He's going to get himself killed by Kat." His hands come to scrub down his face.

"What do you mean? What did he do Hay?" I ask him a bit more anxious for an answer. What dumbass plan does this kid have now? And why does it always seem to aim to piss of Kat? 

Hay opens his mouth to answer but gets interrupted by a knock on the door. We all tense up and freeze, not breathing, not making a sound. Hopefully the person just goes away and I can get a fucking answer. 

"I know you three are in there. Haymitch isn't nearly as stealthy as he thinks he is. He's rusty after all these years." The voice comes through the door and we all sigh and resign ourselves to having been found. 

Hay grabs the handle and goes to pull it open, making the last comment of "i really hope he doesn't go through with it," before we're faced with Gloss' over cheerful face. 

"You really need to work on your stealthiness. Especially if you're supposed to be the brains behind us getting out of this hell hole." Gloss shakes his head at us amused, keeping his voice low enough for only us to hear him. 

I can hear Hay roll his eyes and curse out Gloss in his head. I chuckle under my breath. Gloss may act like an idiot that knows jack shit but anyone to think that is dead wrong. This man has so much charisma and is always on high alert with his senses. I'm glad he's on our side, if he weren't we'd be so fucked. 

"Shut up." Is all Hay grumbles out before he stalks off and towards the sitting room. Jo, Gloss and I follow him with a laugh shared between us all. I'm still worried about what Haymitch was trying to tell us but there's nothing I can do about it now. Just going to have to roll with the punches as they come. 

One by one all the tributes and mentors make their way to the sitting room, waiting for everything to start. Almost everyone is in the room when the stage coordinator calls for Gloss to head out and start his little interview he does every year as well. Like I said, the man's got charisma oozing out of him. There's no way he wouldn't be a favorite among the Capitol population. He winks at Hay, Jo and I who made a group in the corner with him and Cash, then walks off towards the stage with the coordinator.

We go back to talking among each other, all our tributes keeping to themselves looking nervous. Peeta looks like he's sweating bullets across the room from us and he keeps glancing over to Hay and I. I really wish Hay could tell me what he wanted to earlier. It would be able to shine some light on why that kid looks like he's about to hurl himself off a cliff. 

While I'm trying to run through possibilities of what Hay might have went on to say, the room gets quiet. Like real quiet and it takes me a moment to figure it out, because I was so caught up in finally getting a moment of peace. Then I got curious to exactly why it so quiet. I look around the room, searching. 

My breath catches as I finally spot the cause of silence. It's Katniss. 

And she's stunning. 

Her dress is a bright red that sparkles and glits with every move the dress makes. She looks like she's in heels, because she most definitely not able to see over my shoulder last time I saw her. She has more makeup on than she did with the Chariots, but it just enhances her features without hiding or taking them over. Her hair is up in some kind of intricate... thing on top of her head, which also sparkles. She's a spectacularly sparkly woman and I wish I could kiss her till it were me wearing whatever color red was painted on her lips. Soon Finnick. Soon. Be patient. 

I take a deep breath and try to center myself and calm it down before I said "fuck it" and went over to her in front of everyone. Hopefully after these games I'll be able to do exactly what's going through my mind right now, but till then I'll just have to wait and be patient. 

She stands there looking like she could care less but she looks so uncomfortable with all the attention on her, so I nudge Haymitch to wave her over. It would be suspicious if I were to do it, people would catch on if I were so outwardly nice and forward with her. He catches the hint and waves his hand at her. "Katniss, come here. I need to talk to you." 

She doesn't show visibly that she's relieved, but you can see in her eyes that she's thankful to have a place to hide away. I think someone has a bit of anxiety with crowds and being the center of attention. Not good. 

"I love the haircut, Jo. And that dress is gorgeous." Bug is quick to compliment Jo when she steps over to us. I shove my twitching hands into my pockets, trying to keep myself from reaching out her. I don't need to be one of the reasons the Careers, who are staring at our little group very closely, gun after her anymore than they already are going to. "Did your people forget to wash your hair, Hay? It looks like a mess." She grimaces and he just makes a face at her. She makes one back and then they both smile at each other, must be an inside joke. Then she turns to me and I raise an eyebrow at her. "Hmm. I guess you look nice, Mr. Odair." She has a straight face but her eyes are dancing with amusement and look so playful. 

I play along and bring my hand from my pocket to place over my heart in mock hurt. "Well, I must say I'm wounded, Ms. Everdeen. I'm sorry I can't reach your league of beauty. You must forgive me." I make a pouty face at her and she almost cracks a smile. Almost. 

"I might be able to find it in my heart to forgive, but trust this. I'll never forget." She turns her nose playing haughty but she keeps her eyes on me. Those beautiful eyes. She looks up to my hair and drags them down, taking in every detail, and I stand still letting her. Normally I'd feel uncomfortable, but with Bug I just feel a warmth spreading through me. Her gaze goes from appreciative to a bit heated by the time she gets back up to my face and looks me in my eyes. 

"I'll hold you to that, Ms. Everdeen." I give her a small smirk and see her repress a shudder. Hmm, this is new. I like it. 

She shakes her head and looks over to Haymitch and Jo who both have an eyebrow raised at us. We both shrug our shoulders and Hay shakes his head, as if saying 'whatever, not my business'. "Are you ready? I know it seems like there's a lot of people here but time is going to fly, and it'll be your time before you know it." He asks her. I can see her shoulders tense and about a million different things run through her mind at once. 

"I know. I'll be ready when I go up there. We went over what to say, and you said he'll help me if he needs too. I'll be fine. I'll be fine." It sounds like she's telling herself this more than she's telling him. I look down and see she's wringing her hands together. I want to reach out and put a hand on her shoulder, or give her a hug but I can't. I can feel people's gazes on us periodically. I look up to the small TV in the room and see that Gloss was replaced by Enobaria, I'll be up next which means I'll be called any moment now. 

I shift feet to not be suspicious when shifting closer to her just that little bit. I drop my voice to a whisper and try to reassure her. "If you need, I'll be out in the audience, fifth row from the front, directly in front of the chair you'll be sitting in. You can look at me and focus on me, and just act like you're talking to me. Just you and me sitting in your room, on your bed. I'll be right there, the whole time for you. I won't leave till you do, Bug. I promise." She looks up to me, nervous look in her eyes firm. I nod to her unsaid question, "I promise." She nods and gives me a quiet 'thank you'. 

It's not much but it gets her to untense a little and stop wringing her hands. As if on cue I'm called by the stage coordinator. "Finnick Odair, to the stage!" I raise my hand to show where I am and tell him a quick 'I'm coming'.

I look down to Bug and tell her, "Remember, just look at me. It'll be okay, you've got this." A small smile and wink to her and I'm head off to coordinator to do my interview. I really hate this repetitive shit. 

After my interview, which went exactly how I said it would earlier all the way down to the way I walked off stage, I'm escorted to the side and towards my normal seat next to Jo who normally takes Mags' spot next to Beetee. Since Five's male mentor, I can never remember his name, never shows up Haymitch takes his spot as well. He gets on well with Sierra, Five's female Mentor this year, so no one comments on it. 

Just like every year, right after me is the tributes. So Caesar starts to bring them out one by one for their five minute interview. They go by quickly, Nerissa coming out and trying to seduce the crowd was just a cringe fest. She wasn't very good at it, and she acted just like Glimmer from One which is going to hurt her appearance as a copycat. Ondine did pretty well with his interview, only stumbled on his words once and gave some pretty nice smiles to the crowd. I tried to pay attention to the majority of the interviews, trying to ignore the sarcastic comments being made by both Haymitch and Jo to try to get me to laugh at the most inappropriate times. They do this all the time, but I can't do much about it besides try to hide smiles behind my hand and cover up laughs with coughs. I'm on the screen almost as much as the tributes are. 

I slap them both whenever the cameras are off of me. They know better, but they never listen to me. 

When Thresh comes out, he's stoic and then breaks out with this giant smile and has the crowd cheering for him by the time he walks off the stage. Rue on the other hand left everyone in the crowd with wet faces when she walked off. She talked about her siblings back home and how she misses them, she talked about how she hopes she go back home to them at the end of this. She told Caesar and the crowd to "Not count her out just yet" when he asked her if she thought she could really win the whole thing. Even I teared up for her. 

Then "We welcome, Katniss Everdeen onto the stage next!" is bellowed out into the crowd and the crowd loses its shit. They must have been stunned and excited about her score and chariot entrance and volunteering. I regret not bringing earplugs, I forget every year. 

She's even more stunning with the lights shining on her. Caesar stands and takes her hand in his, giving it a kiss and guiding her to her seat. She looks absolutely terrified. She must be focused on the crowd because Caesar has to repeat his first question to her to get her attention. 

The crowd does a collective chuckle at her turning Caesar and asking him, "huh?" 

He bows his head, probably collecting himself to figure out how to help her through the interview. "I asked how you were doing this evening." He gives her a kind smile and does a subtle nod to her. 

It's like something clicks in her mind and she gives him a nervous smile, "Well, I'm doing pretty fine. A little nervous but who wouldn't be while sitting next to such a handsome celebrity?" She gestures to Caesar and it must catch him off guard because there's a light red that dusts his cheeks. Oh she's good, she turned it right back to him and got the crowd to laugh in the process. 

"Oh, Ms. Everdeen, you're too kind." He comments. 

"Please, call me Katniss." she gently waves a hand to him. 

"Okay, well Katniss, I'm not too sure who's the bigger celebrity on stage tonight. You made quite the entrance here didn't you? Didn't she?" He turns to the crowd and they cheer as flashes of her Chariot ride play behind them on screen. He has the crowd settle before he turns back to her. "I must say, if people didn't fall in love with you when you volunteered then they certainly did at the Chariots." He nods to the crowd as they scream 'yes' towards the stage to agree with him. Bug just sits there trying to take it all in at once which doesn't seem to be sitting with her very well. Caesar holds a hand towards to the crowd and it gets quiet quick. This man is their God, I swear. "Now I must ask," he pauses and a picture of Prim comes up on the screen behind them and my stomach drops a bit. I knew he'd bring her up but I don't know how Firefly is going to do with it. "That's your sister isn't it? Primrose, was it?" He gets a small stuttering nod from Bug and continues. "I must say, we were all surprised when you came forward to take her place. Why was that?"

Katniss looks like she's about to drown. Whatever she was going to say, completely flew out the window the second she was shown Prim's face. She looks out to the crowd, searching. She must have forgotten where I said I was sitting. She looks around frantically for a moment before she skims over me. She snaps back to me and her terrified gaze holds my calm supportive ones. I glance at the side TV and make sure they aren't focused on me before I give her smile. I let her stare at me for as long as she needs, letting her find whatever she's searching for in me. I mouth to her "you and me" and she looks to come to a conclusion. 

She closes her eyes and when she opens them there are a few tears ready to spill over. She turns to Caesar with a sad smile and tells him "That certainly is my baby sister. She's my entire world. I would do anything for that child." She lets a controlled tear out and takes the tissue offered to her. She dabs the tear away and then continues to say, "I vowed to protect her with my life. So that's what I was doing when I took her place. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I willing let her get hurt." She shakes her head and looks back to Caesar to let him know she was done with her answer. An amazing one if I do say so myself. A truthful one as well.

"Beautiful. Such a beautiful woman inside and out!" He nods to himself and then turns to the teary eyed crowd to get their reaction as well. "Speaking of beautiful." He turns back and pauses after getting the crowds to hush down again. "The flames you wore on the Chariot were stunning! Please tell us." he leans in close to her like he's trying to get a secret from her. "Were those flames real? Did they hurt? We're dying to know." He looks genuinely intrigued for her answer. 

Kat gives him a coy smile and looks out to the crowd once more, not looking to me but pointing out Cinna a few rows back and to the left. He stands and waves as Katniss says, "Well they didn't hurt but I'll just have to keep the secret of if they're real or not between me and my stylist." 

Caesar gives a disappointed sound and bows his head. "I understand, some secrets are meant to stay hidden." He shakes his head. 

"Oh don't look so down. Can I tell you a different secret?" She asks him in a mock whisper back to him. I wonder what she's up too. Caesar's head pops back up and he prompts her to continue. "Well." She pauses and scoots closer to the edge of her seat, closer to him. "I'm wearing my flames her tonight as well." Caesar's eyes light up and he looks surprised. "Would you like to see them?" She asks him. 

"I do believe I speak for everyone when I say we'd love to see them!" He stands and offers Bug a hand to help her to her feet. She accept sit and stand with him, then takes a few steps forward to the edge of the stage. 

She takes a breath and then starts to twirl in place. Excited gasps and cheers erupt from the Caesar and the crowd as flames start to roll off the end of her dress. The faster she twirled the larger the flames. 

"My goodness! Truly a Girl On Fire! Ms. Katniss Everdeen, everyone!" Caesar announces to the crowd as her interview ends. She stops twirling and the flames stop, she looks slightly dizzy and catches Caesar's offered hand. He raises both of their hands in the air and the crowd loses it again. She gets the first and only standing ovation of the night. Everyone including Jo, Hay and myself get to our feet and clap and whistle for her as she begins her walk off stage. While both the cameras are busy not being on me and the crowd are distracted, I crouch down and make my way down the aisle towards the exit. 

I really want to get to Kat. All the other tributes have more than likely been escorted back to their floors by Peacekeepers by now. I'd really like to make it to her so I can do that instead. I get behind the stage before she makes it down the hallway to the elevator. You can hear Caesar introducing Peeta, but I block it out in favor of taking in all that is Katniss as she walks towards me. The Peacekeeper next to her looks confused to see me. 

"I'll take her up." I tell him and he looks nervous to being given this alternate ending to his shift. I reach into my pocket and take out my wallet. When in doubt, bribe your way out. "Here, for your troubles." I hand his a few large bills with Snow's face on it. He takes it in his hand and looks stunned as he nods to us and then turns on his heel and walks away like nothing happened, pocketing the cash. Peacekeepers get paid a barely livable wage, so I know the money will help with whatever he's got going on in his mind when he saw the money.

I look around me, doing a full 360, before I take Katniss in my arms and hug her close to me. She brings her arms around my neck and I lift her up so I'm not bending over. I squeeze her close to me and then whisper in her ear, "You did amazing, just like I knew you would." She brings her head back to look me in the eye as I set her back down on her feet. Her eyes twinkle and she looks proud of herself. I know I am. 

She then takes my face in her hands and brings me towards hers. Her soft lips meet mine and our noses brush. Our eyes close simultaneously and a warmth spreads through me. A slight tingle in my lips. A hand sliding to my chest, another to the back of my head. The kiss is slow and filled with untold emotions. We break apart when we run out of air, both of us panting slightly. I'm the first to open my eyes and I just scan her face, memorizing every inch. Makeup or not, she's the most beautiful woman I've met. Her kind and gentle soul making her that much more gorgeous. 

A smile breaks out across her face and she opens her eyes. Appreciation, adoration, and something I don't want to put my finger on shines bright in her eyes. I pull her close once more, not wanting to ruin the moment with words. I'm so proud of her, she owned the stage and out shined everyone prior. Out shined Caesar himself and the man is blue. She achieved something others can only dream of doing. We take a step away from each other but let our hands link up, intertwining our fingers. I look around to make sure there's no one around still, just to find Jo and Hay standing a dozen feet away from us with knowing and teasing looks on their faces. 

"Well then, we caught the real show behind stage." Hay makes the comment and Jo's hand is promptly making contact with the back of his head.

"So stupid." She says under her breath and then makes her way towards us. "You did great, Hun. You should be proud." She steps forward and initiates the most awkward hug I've ever seen. I understand, she's adamant on not being touched or touching anyone. I know it's a weird experience for her to initiate contact. Bug must understand this because she whispers something in her ear and has Jo smiling and laughing and hugging her in earnest. I wonder what she said. "You're damn right." A high five is shared between the two after the hug ends. 

Hay comes to stand next to me and tells Kat, "What she said, Sweetheart. Ya did good." He doesn't dare try to hug Bug though. "Peeta's almost done his interview, let's wait here till he's done." He grumbles out, looking anxiously towards the TV across from us. I haven't been paying any attention it, for obvious reasons. 

We all walk over to it, to watch the last question or two Caesar holds for Peeta. The scene we come to is one of a smiling Caesar and Peeta. I guess it's going pretty well.

"That's amazing! You're amazing! Tell us," Caesar leans forward with his elbows on his knees and Peeta copies him. It looks like a generic 'guy conversation' scene. "With you being so amazing," the crowd makes a bit of noise at that and the four of us behind the stage roll our eyes collectively, "you must have a gal back home. Tell us, does the amazing Peeta Mellark have a girl back home waiting for his return?"

Peeta chuckles and I don't like the tone of it, "That's a tricky question, Caesar. I do have my eye on a girl from home that is true, but I don't think she'll ever like me back." Peeta's face is doing a thing and it matches the tone of his chuckle way to much for my liking. It sounds a bit evil and like he's plotting. What the fuck is this boy up to?

"Oh that's nonsense! Here's what you've got to do. Go in that arena, win, then bring the win back to Twelve for her. She couldn't possibly turn you down or not notice you then!" Caesar decides to give him some 'advice' and the crowd shouts their approval of it. It looks like the answer Peeta was looking for because he shakes his head and his face twists into a menacing smirk, which can pass off as an 'I don't know about that' half smile. 

"You see, about that Caesar. It's a bit more complicated than that." HE shakes his head to Caesar.

"Oh fuck." I hear Haymitch. "Please don't." His eyes close and his face falls into his hands. "I'm so fucking dead." Is muffled into his hands. I'm so confused and concerned right now. I glance between Haymitch and the screen and look over to a confused Jo and Kat before going back to the TV then Hay once more. This has got to be what Hay was trying to tell Jo and I about earlier. Warn us about. 

"Well how could it be more complicated? Everyone loves a Victor!" Caesar tries to make sense of Peeta's comment. He looks just as confused as us backstage. I do not like what's going on. Hay preparing for his death, Caesar's confused, and Peeta looks downright vicious.

I step closer to Bug and hold her close to me, I feel like I need to keep her within arms reach. I don't know what's about to happen but it can't be anything remotely good. 

"Well it's complicated because I'm head over heels for her, and she's here in the Capitol." There's a few gasps going through the crowd and Caesar's eyebrows shoot to his hairline. Meanwhile mine scrunch together. Is he in love with Effie? Jo? That little killer form Two? The ditsy blonde from One? Who the fuck is he talking about? 

"In the Capitol you say? Is it one of your fellow competitors? Maybe the nice young lady from One, Glimmer?" Caesar questions him, trying to get an answer from him before the clock runs out on the interview. You can see he's on the edge of his seat along with the entire audience I'm willing to bet. 

Peeta shakes his head and throws his hands up,"I don't know if I should tell you. I'm not sure if you guys can keep it secret." What the fuck does he mean 'keep it secret'? He's on live TV. He's building anticipation and he seems to thrive on the attention being given to him. This sadistic little shit. 

"You're killing us! We promise we'll keep it secret for you. Won't we?" Caesar turns to the crowd and they all throw a chorus of 'yes' towards the stage. "See? You can trust us! Now come on, tell us. Who is this mystery woman is!" Caesar looks almost desperate. 

Peeta seems to think for a moment before acting like he gives up and then leans forward on his knees once more. He gestures for Caesar to go closer to him and he and everyone else lean forward. The cameras show the audience all leaned forward and on the edge of their seats, they're eating up every word he's saying. They don't want to miss a single syllable. 

"Okay. So she's this amazing woman. She's beautiful, stunning. She's smart, quick on her feet. Has the kindest heart, and would do anything for her family and District." He describes this 'mystery woman' to Caesar and I cock my head to the side.

Next to me I've got Hay doing an almost silent prayer, asking a higher being to allow the floor to swallow him whole where he stands. Then he looks up and over to Kat and I when he comes to the reality that it's just not going to happen. "Maybe you two should head on up. Jo and I can wait for Peeta, we'll be fine. I promise." 

Looking over to him in confusion, my eyebrows draw together as Katniss protests saying "I want to know the unlucky soul that's about to be named. We can go up with him, I don't mind waiting." 

Hay just shakes his head and goes back to mumbling into his hands. 

"Well she sounds pretty amazing as well, if I do say so myself." Caesar comments, still looking confused. I turn back to the TV, trying to figure out what Peeta's going to say before he says it. I come up empty. 

"She does, doesn't she?" Peeta gives a smile and then bows and shakes his head. When he lifts it again, he comes up with a mock sad smile. "I really wish I could change our situation. I really do. You see Caesar, if I were to win and go back home to Twelve it would be a moot point. She is a competitor of mine and she also came to the Capitol in the same train as me. I've been in love with Katniss Everdeen since we were little, but I doubt she's ever really given me more than a second glance." 

And just like that Peeta Mellark broke four minds and blew a whole countries mind in two short sentences. 

Everyone is in a stunned silence, Caesar audience and us three included. The only one that isn't surprised is Hay, who's stopped praying into his hands and has started to wear down a path in the floor from pacing. 

"What... What in the holy fuck? What the fuck was that? I'm sorry, did he just say your name? He really does want to die." Jo is rambling on as she starts to pace, no doubt trying to keep the majority of her comments to herself. Not want to piss anyone off any further so she can see how the rest of this plays out. 

Bug just stares at the screen. She looks like she's trying to process everything. She looks entirely too calm. Then she nods to herself. Pauses. Then starts to nod again. Her jaw starts to twitch and she turns herself towards a still pacing Hay. "What she said. What the fuck Abernathy?" The question comes out calm and deadly. It sends a chill through me. This is a new level of pissed I truly hope I never evoke. 

Haymitch stops in his tracks and begins pleading immediately. "I swear I tried to talk him out of it. I told him that it was a horrible idea the second he even hinted at it. I tried to stop this. I swear!" He raises his clasped hands to her and he looks so sincere and apologetic. 

I seem to be the only one aware of what's happening on the TV as Caesar begins to give his condolences to Peeta, knowing that only one of them can come out of the arena if either of them can. Peeta accepts it and then Caesar stands to give Peeta his exit. My eyes widen as I see Peeta be escorted off the stage. Then I take a few steps to my left towards the hall, Kat long since walked off from me to go yell at Hay with Jo as a referee. I see Peeta step out into the hallway with a smug look on his face.

"Oh shit. Not good." I say under my breath. I look back over to Bug and make a decision. As much as I'd love to see he stomp him into the ground, I don't need her in trouble the night before she goes into the arena. I hurry over to the trio, trying to get her out the small area and away from Peeta as quick as possible. I step up behind Katniss and put on my best calm smile, one of us need to make rational decisions and I'm not counting on Bug to make them at the moment. "Firefly? Hey, Firefly." I catch her attention. I keep the smile on my face and the calm expression the best I can, even as she turns her livid gaze towards me. The fire in her eyes is absolutely terrifying, but I can't let her see that it secretly scares me. The she secretly scares me. 

"Hey, my Bug. You want to get out of here? Go change and get all this off you? Then head up to the roof? That sounds nice right?" I try to convince her the best I can to come with me. She looks like she's about to agree with me, the fire in her eyes slowly fading to something more calm. Still pissed off but more calm at least. "Yeah, sounds real nice. Let's go on ahead and let Haymitch and Jo deal with what they need to okay?" She nods and I give her a real smile. No blood shall be spilled tonight, thank Poseidon. 

"Hey, Haymitch. I don't know why you tried to talk me out of doing that for the interview. The crowd loved it." Comes from behind me. I can feel everyone tense. 

"So close." I say through my smile as I see the calm fire spike back up to its full blinding rage. 

So close, indeed. 


	12. Chapter Eleven - Love Your Weird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sooooo... Guess who finally saved up enough to get a new laptop to update?! This girl did ^.^ I've been working on this story on my phone while I wasn't able to update. So I've got at least something to give you guys something. I'm so sorry it took so long to get the next chapter up. I really am. I really want to get this story done for you guys. Y'all've been so damn patient and I really truly do appreciate it. I don't think I could've asked for a better and more amazing set of followers. Every single one of y'alls reviews since I went down have really touched my heart and I really do love you guys. I hope this chapter is everything that you guys wanted.

My hands are on Bug's shoulders and I'm trying to keep her eyes on me. I don't chance looking over to Haymitch, who looks like he's torn between going to Peeta to get him somewhere else and not wanting to pass by Kat. Which is understandable.

Her hands are in fists at her side and they're flexing like she wants to wrap them around a certain someone's throat. Her jaw is clenched and her whole body is rigid. I'm really trying to stop a legitimate murder at the moment, but the mouth causing all the trouble is still going a mile a minute behind me.

"Just look at me, Bug. He is nothing. No. You know what? He's less than nothing." I tell her, not trying to keep my voice down.

"That's rich coming from the Capitol's most prized whore!" Peeta really has grown some balls since last night. I guess he didn't like being strapped to a chair and mouth muzzled.

I shake my head to Katniss when her mouth opens up to run her tongue across her teeth and her eyebrows raise in a 'can I kill him now?' type of way. "No, Firefly. You kill him now and it's not just him that wins. His opinion of me means absolutely nothing. The only person whose opinion I care about is yours. That's it. Do you think I'm a whore?" I ask her in earnest. I wait for her answer patiently, letting her process the question through her fog of anger. I know she didn't hear me at first but I can see when it finally does. Her hands stop flexing and she brings them up to either side of my face.

The lightest brush of her lips to mine has my shoulders dropping a tension I didn't know was there. I guess my subconscious still hasn't wrapped itself around the fact that Katniss actually does care about me and this isn't just her acting to gain something from me. "Never." Is the only thing she tells me when we part. She says it with such conviction and sincerity in her voice that it's kind of hard to not believe her. I hope I can feel that about myself one of these days.

"Then that's all I care about. You're the only one I believe. Everyone else can go fuck themselves with their opinions of me. I don't care." I shrug my shoulders and she looks like she wants to fight me on it, but gives up when she sees I really do not care. I don't trust my opinion of myself, my mom and sister are biased, and Hay and Jo would lie to me to make me feel better. Katniss hasn't lied to me yet, and I don't think she will. It's one of the reasons I love her.

She nods and then lays her head on my chest, wrapping her arms around my waist. I hug her back and drop my head down to level with her ear. "Want to go and grab all the blankets and pillows we can carry and go up to the roof?" I feel her nod against my chest and take a deep breath before taking a step back from me. "Okay?" I ask her and she takes a second to contemplate before she nods and gives me a small smile which looks forced. I think we've all had enough un-comfortableness for one night so I step back and let my hand grab onto Kat's before we turn to face the three other people we blocked out while talking. I look directly to Hay and ignore the face of disgust Peeta is wearing and the smug look Jo is giving him.

I just want Kat out of this tense situation.

"I'm bringing her upstairs. I'll make sure we're down in time to go to the arena." I tell Haymitch and start to walk with Kat away from the three of them, not waiting for a response. He can deal with it or he can deal with it. Or he can do this wild thing were he just deals with it. The only problem is that we have to walk past Peeta to get to the elevators, since he seems to have migrated in front of them.

We're just walking past him when he reaches out and grabs Bug's left arm, since I'm holding her right hand. I'm about to tell him to back off before he even gets a word out but Bug beats me to it.

By dropping my hand and letting her fist connect with the right side of Peeta's face.

You can hear the second she made contact. You could hear the small crack of bone, which I'm almost positive is his nose being broken. You could also hear the second Peeta made contact with the ground because he was most definitely not expecting to be decked.

Everyone is silent for a moment.

"I told you not to touch me." Katniss makes the comment under her breath. She turns back to me, takes my hand and then asks me, "To the roof you said?" I nod and then she starts to pull me towards the elevators again, like nothing happened.

"Damn." I look back and see Jo crouching over a dazed and confused Peeta holding his nose. Which, by the by, is bleeding profusely.

"What just happened?" You can barely hear Peeta ask it. But you damn well could hear Jo's response and Hay's laughter that followed.

"You just knocked the fuck out, bitch." Jo's emphasis on the word "fuck" was accompanied with a flick to his forehead. He was weakly pushing her away and Hay was doubled over in laughter saying something about 'telling him so' when the elevator doors close in front of me. When did we get in here?

"Do you need to stop on Four, for anything?" I head Firefly ask me from beside me. She's so calm and is speaking as if she hadn't just done the honest to Poseidon hottest thing I'd ever seen. I'm trying to wrap my mind around everything that just happened, but all I can think is 'Damn'.

"Katniss." I try for a sentence but forget what I was about to say.

"Yeah, that's my name." She says with an amused smile on her lips after a moment of silence.

I flounder for a moment before I give up on words. I instead pull her to me, letting her hand go, so both of mine can find either side of her face. My forehead comes to rest on hers, and her hands come up to rest on my chest. "I never thought the sight of someone decking someone else would be so pleased or be as hot as you made it." I whisper this too her, knowing my voice would crack if I went any louder. I lean forward just that little bit till our lips meet. She melts into me and our eyes close in sync. I don't think I'll ever get used to the spark that seems to always be there, when our lips meet.

I can feel her break into a smile and we break away, "You think it's hot that I hit Peeta?" She answers the question on my face at her smile with a question of her own.

"No. I think it's damn hot, how you defended yourself to him. It was so quick and your fist landed so perfectly. It was truly a sight to see." I waggle my eyebrows at her and shake my shoulders like a shiver was going through me. The laugh that gets pulled from deep within her has my face hurting with the smile it brings me. She drops her head onto my chest, hugging me close, as she settles to a light chuckle.

"Oh, you're so weird." The sentiment is muffled into my chest, but she raises her head to look up to me for the next one, her chin on my chest and eyes big with happiness, "I love it." It makes my breath hitch and catch in my throat. I'm used to being told to tone it down or just stop. No one's ever told me that they 'loved' that I'm not like everyone and lean to being a little weird.

"You love my weirdness?" I've got to ask her, just to clarify. My eyebrow is arched and my eyes slanted, disbelieving.

"Mhmm. I do indeed love your weirdness." Such a soft confession melts my heart and has my conscious backing off for the moment. She snuggles her face back into my chest and I hear her sigh and feel her shoulders drop slowly, not as tense now. I close my eyes and wrap my arms around her waist, letting my head lay on the top of hers. I let my eyes fall closed and just bask in the calming quiet around us. The elevator ride goes relatively quick when one zones out of the moment, because we make it to Twelve's floor in no time.

It seems we're the only ones on the floor for the moment, so we walk leisurely to Bug's room so she can take a shower and I get get my backpack. We close the door behind us and flick the lights on, doing a quick scan of the room. On the cushioned chair in the corner of the room, there looks to be an extra set of blankets and pillows sitting on it. I see there's a note sitting on top the neatly stacked pile and read it out loud after a quick glance over it.

"Figured you'd need extras to make a suitable blanket nest on the roof tonight. Don't do anything we wouldn't do, and definitely don't do anything we WOULD do. Jo and Hay"

"That's really sweet." I say and then think about it for a moment. "Kind of creepy though since I didn't tell anyone my plans to steal you away to the roof tonight." I nod to myself then look over to Bug with a serious look on my face. "They're mind readers. I'm probably in deep shit."

I'll give her credit. She kept a straight face for a full ten seconds before she breaks out into a full grin and trying her hardest to not laugh too hard. She lets a chuckle out and then shakes her head at me. It brings a smile to my face. Then again, when doesn't she?

She takes her heels off then bring her right arm over her shoulder and left arm behind her back, trying in vein to reach the hidden zipper.

I let her struggle for a moment just to see if she'll actually get it, but then a small pout starts to form on her lips and it almost melts me into the ground so I step in with "Here let me get that for you." I walk over to her and take the dress in my hands that's just below her shoulder blades. I unclasp the small hook buried in the fabric and bring the zipper down to the small of her back.

"I appreciate you." Bug turns around to look up at me, hands in front of her holding her dress up.

"As I you." I lean down and kiss the tip of her nose. "Go get out of that dress so I can get all those pins out of your hair." Placing my hands on er shoulders I kiss her forehead and then turn her towards the bathroom. She stops at the doorway and tilts her head back when she sees me heading to her dresser to grab her some clothes to quickly change into before she gets in the shower.

"Don't worry I've got something in her to change in to." I nod and she closes the door behind her.

I walk over to the closet where my backpacks are and start to sort through them. I move everything to the first backpack that I brought up here, so the other could be used for to bring food and drinks up to the roof tonight. I look for my favorite pair of grey sweat pants and black t-shirt, along with a pair of underwear and socks to change into after a quick shower. I go and put them at the foot of the bed just as Bug walks out of the bathroom, wearing a pair training short and what looks to be a shirt she wore last time I slept up here. I nod my head to have her sit on the bed in front of me. I position her to sit away from me and start to pull out the ridiculous amount of pins in her hair.

There were more than a few pins with a little gem that sparkled on the tip of it. All strategically placed to sparkle and gleam in the multitude of lights in the capitol. I place both bedazzled and plain pins on the table next to her bed to keep track of them. I'd like to count how many were actually in her hair after they're all out.

Slowly but surely her hair begins to fall around her shoulders and I comb my hands through her hair in various spots to make sure I got them all. I pull out the last four I find and then just let her lean back against my stomach my hands brush through her hair. Lightly dragging my nails against her scalp till she's all but asleep and purring at the motions.

I stop and then slowly move her back into a sitting position. "Go ahead and take a shower and get the rest of the night off of you, Bug. I'll go take a quick shower in the Mentor room next door and then we'll go up, okay?"

She doesn't respond verbally but does nod her head as she brings herself up to stand next to me. She pulls me in for a quick hug and then ventures on towards the bathroom.

"So cute." I whisper under my breath watching as she closes the door. I look down at the pile of pins I just pulled out of my Bug's hair and shake my head. "Were all of those really necessary Cinna?" I shake my head one last time at the pile and then grab my clothes and make my way out of the room. Locking the handle before I close the door behind me. I know we're alone up here but I don't know if the others will make it up before I get out the shower and I don't want to chance Peeta sneaking his way into Bug's room.

I'd be arrested very quickly.

When entering the bathroom I can hear Bug's shower going and wonder if I can make my shower faster than hers. I hop in the and quickly scrub off everything from the night. I wasn't touched by many unwanted hands tonight but the feeling is always there. Quickly scrubbing both body and hair till I feel almost raw, I make the shower hot and fast. Shutting the water off after the last of the suds and conditioner are down the drain.

Stepping out of the shower I notice that the room is extremely quiet. "How'd she finish before me? I was literally like ten minutes at most." I ask myself only a little confused. I'll stop being surprised by her one of these days.

Maybe.

Probably not.

I towel myself dry and tug on my clothes. Slipping on my slides as I make my way out of the room, I take notice that there's noise being made in the living room and kitchen. Plates and silverware clinking, idle talk and the occasional burst of Jo's voice.

As quietly as possible, I make my way to Bug's door and knock on it just loud enough to not echo down the hall. Light footsteps make their way to the door and the door click with the lock being undone. My short little Bug smiles up at me when she sees that it's me and takes my hand to pull me inside. I smile at her and go to put my suit on the bench in the closet. I doubt my clothes would have been found if they were left in the other bathroom. I grab the backpack I emptied of my things earlier and bring it out with me.

I turn around and stop dead in my tracks. I had turned around to find my Bug swimming in one of my shirts and a pair of my sweatpants with a dark green pair of socks that her hers. Guess mine didn't fit her small feet. Oh this pleases something dead inside me and I'm not one hundred percent I know why but at the moment I don't really care.

I make my way to her slowly with my head cocked to the side and a pleased smile on my lips. "How in the world are those pants staying up on your hips right now?" I ask her quietly as I get within arms reach of her.

"You may not have to use the stings on these but just know I do and they work wonders." She lifts the end of the shirt up just enough to show the long bow tied at the front of the pants. I nod in approval of the answer. To be completely honest I never really noticed that my sweats had drawstrings in them since, as Bug said, I never use them.

"That makes a lot of sense and I kind of feel just a little stupid t having to ask." With a grin I give her a kiss to the forehead and wrap her in lose but loving hug. I love how she doesn't hesitate to wrap her arms around my waist in response. It's going to be a living hell these next few days with her in the arena. Being able to see her but not be able to protect her, body or mind.

I blink away those thoughts, not wanting to get too deep into my head right now. One quick squeeze and I bring my hands up to cup her cheeks and tilt her head back.

"Want to go fill our backpack up with food and drinks and make our way to, how did Jo and Hay put it? Our blanket nest? on the roof?" I had to think for a moment on what exactly they called our thing we have going on, on the roof. Never would have thought the word "nest". Blanket fort, blanket pile, hoard of softness and warmth, or even alarming amount of blankets and pillows, sure, but never thought the word "nest".

Regardless, her eyes light up and she nods her head with excitement. I let my hand fall to hers and I raise it my lips, doing a quick once over of it before giving it a soft kiss on the slightly reddened skin there. If her knuckles bruise it won't be dark or noticeable.

"As hot as it was, no more hitting okay?" I give a light warning, mostly to let her know that there were others on the other side of the door than to actually discourage her from throwing another punch. I've taken notice to her incredible amount of patience. I have no doubt that as long as no one touches her unwanted, we'll make it up to the roof with no incidents.

I should knock on some wood before we leave the room. I have no faith in Peeta whatsoever.

She rolls her eyes but nods anyway, to give me peace of mind probably. I smush her cheeks together, because they're just so squishable, and peck her nose before letting go. I get a giggle and light smack to my arm, which I obviously clutch at as if she punched me. I rub my arm and mumble a "So mean to me" under my breath with pout which gets me a real laugh this time. Oh I love that laugh.

She takes my hand in hers, interlacing our fingers, and pulls me out the door. I get a solid two knocks on the wooden door as I close it behind me. It earns me a raised eyebrow and a pair of questioning eyes , which I just shrug off and say "Just in case."

I get an "eh" and then I'm being tugged forward once again. I follow happily behind her, bag slung over my shoulder. We make our way through the living room, which has Jo, Hay, Effie and Cinna all sitting on the couches within. I raise an eyebrow at Hay when he catches my eye, hoping her get the question which having to be asked.

"Getting his nose reset." Is the response I get back. Hay shakes his head but he's got a proud smile on his face. His surrogate daughter showing off that she knows how to defend herself makes him just as proud as it does for me.

"Cried bitch baby tears." Jo brings a finger to the corner of her eye to simulate a tear going down her face. "It was beautiful." She flashes a smirk to Bug and gets one in return. Don't get me wrong. I'm beyond happy that my two favorite girls have found friendship in each other but I have a feeling their relationship is just going to grow more and more lethal as time goes on. I really can't fuck up around these two. They'd kill me and have my body hidden before you could even ask "Who's Finnick?" and "Never heard of him."

Bug takes the backpack off my shoulder and then tells me "We forgot the extra blankets. I'll get the food while you go back and get those." Then she walks off before I could get a word in otherwise. I shrug and then head back to the room to grab the pile we forgot.

In no time we've gotten everything together and have made our way up to the rooftop. Looks like knock on the door I did, did wonders. I should do that more often.

We start arranging the extra pillows and blankets to our existing set up and make the makeshift bed even more comfortable. I lay down first and make sure that I'm comfortable before I take Bug's hand in mine and tug her down to lay half on top of me. She situates herself and brings her arms around my waist and one of her legs thrown across both of mine. I bring my arm that her head is laying on and bring it around her shoulder to bring her even closer to me.

If she's in my arms, she won't be hurt. I won't allow it.

A kiss to the top of her head and we fall into a comfortable silence, watching the stars and clouds float by above us. I focus on my breathing to clear my head and stay calm in the pure terror creeping in with what's to come by morning. I know even if she won't say it, she's terrified. Just like me.

There's always the chance that Snow will see the raging fire inside of my Firefly just like me and all of District Twelve do and have Seneca all but execute her on live television with the press of a button. My bug being slain like that, in front of everyone will not only rip the little bit of soul I have left out by the root, but it'll also start a revolution that isn't fully ready to be put in motion. We'd have to wait another 75 years or so before we could even thing about trying again. Even then we wouldn't have Bug. Which is something that shakes me to my very core even in unwanted passing thought.

I don't realize it but I've been slowly tightening my grip on Bug. So much so that she starts to wiggle against me to turn herself more to look at me in the face. She's the picture of concern.

Damn.

That's not what I wanted at all. She doesn't need me to be acting like this when she's got more than enough on her plate already.

Trying to put her back to ease, I bring my hand that was laying on my stomach to the side of her face. I bring my thumb to between her eyebrows and smooth out the stitch work she's got going on there. In turn she raises an eyebrow in confusion. At me nearly squeezing her to death out of nowhere or at the forced smile on my face. I'm not sure but I need to get the look of worry off of her face as soon as I can.

Instead of trying to say anything at the moment, I lean down and place a soft and sweet kiss on her forehead. Her hair is down around her shoulders tonight, to try to keep her shoulders and neck warm I'm betting. I take advantage of that fact and start to pass my hand through her hair and stop at just above the nape of her neck. I gently scratch there methodically and keep going till she loosens back up and her eyes fall shut.

"You're hands are magical. I don't normally like people playing in my hair, but I'll always leave an exception for you." It comes out soft but still loud enough for me to hear clearly.

A smirk comes to form on my lips and a soft chuckle works its way up and out the back of my throat. "I'm glad to be exempt from your ban. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I couldn't play in your hair from time to time. It's so soft and smells like" I take a moment to lean my head forward and bury my nose into her hair. I don't even have to take a deep breath to smell "a forest." I leave a quick kiss and lay my head back down on the pillow behind my head. It's quiet again for a moment.

Till I feel Bug take a deep breath in and then let it out slowly. Like she's trying to keep herself calm. Maybe her thoughts are starting to get to her. She doesn't feel tense. If anything she feels a bit heavier on top of me than she did moments ago. Let's try to get her mind off of what I'm sure is what's to come in less than fifteen hours from now.

"You know I came up here the night before I went into the arena also?" I keep my voice low so that I don't disrupt the calm of the night around us.

"I found this place that very night and it seemed like the best place to be alone and hide from everything and everyone. I was amazed at how high up I was. Granted this isn't the highest place I'd ever been, but it was the quietest high I'd ever been around. There's a cliff not too far from my childhood home that's way taller than this. My friends and I would go cliff diving every now and then, we still do sometimes. There though, it's loud. Nature right there is just so loud. The water at the base of the cliff colliding with rocks. The seagulls flying overhead and nesting in the trees around the cliff. The trees themselves teaming with little creatures scurrying about and trying to do as they do. It was loud. A nice serene loud but loud all the same." I absentmindedly start coming my hand through her hair again. I feel Bug's eyes on me but I don't mind. I don't feel anxious when it's her eyes.

"Up here, all there is, is wind. It wraps around you and holds you tight. It drowns out everything around you. It lets your mind go blank Or it lets you focus on everything you need to. It gives you time to think without flashing lights and screaming people in your face. The night before my arena, it was the former for me. I was able to just relax for a moment and not focus on the pure terror that was ripping through me from the moment I heard my name be called. I think that was the first time my heart wasn't hammering against my chest since my reaping. I was so scared. I wasn't even scared for myself, I was scared for my mom and sister. What was going to happen to them if I died? What would happen to them if I killed other kids and then died myself? What would they think of me if I killed other kids and then won? Would they hate me? Would they still love me? Would they be scared of me? Then I came up here just wanting to get away from the everything that reminded me of what was to come." I'm holding onto Bug tight again but it doesn't seem to faze her this time. In fact she holds onto me tighter and gives me a little squeeze when I pause to take a breath.

"That first gust of wind that hits you when you open the door had me stopped in my tracks. It was so cold but it was refreshing. It gave me goosebumps but it gave me something else to focus on. It took my breath away but it helped me breathe easier after. The closer I got to the edge of the roof, the quieter my mind got. I let my mind take a break and laid down on the ledge over there." I lift my right hand to point over at the part of the wall directly in front of the door. "I laid back and watched the stars. I had missed them. I looked at the stars I knew my family were under. I felt closer to them so how. Like they weren't as far away as they really were. I watched the stars all night, right up till the sun drowned them out. Then I watched the sunrise and the wind died down and I was calm and ready to do what I needed to do." I raised my head just enough to meet Bug's gaze and held it for a moment. It looked like she was searching for answers. I don't know what kind she's looking for but I can take a wild stab at it.

"After spending the night p here I was finally as ready as I could be to do what was expected of me. I put my mom and sister in a little box in the back of my mind and decided that whatever happened after the arena, would only happen after the arena. Whatever happened after would be grains of sand compared to what I'd go through inside the arena. Whatever happened after the arena I knew I could face it head on and either come out stronger or at the very least try to fix it. I just had to do my damnedest to try to give myself the chance to have "after the arena" time. I'm not going to lay here and tell you it's going to be easy. That everything will be okay when you come out of the arena. That you won't be looked at differently. I'd be lying if I did." Bug looked concerned but appreciative of me not trying to sugarcoat what's going to happen. Her eyes close and she lets her head drop to my chest. Her forehead directly over my heart.

I bring my free hand to her cheek, raising her head back up to meet my gaze once more. "But I will promise you this. No matter what happens in that arena, I will be right here for you. I will make sure to be the first person you see when you wake up. I'll be right there, holding your hand, making sure you now how beyond happy I am that you are still breathing and living in this world. There's not a single thing you can do in that arena that will make me think of you any differently than I do right now in this very moment. I know you're only going into this arena because of love. I know how pure your heart is Katniss Magnolia Everdeen. Going into that arena and being forced to do heinous things will never change that. You're a good person Firefly. Please don't forget that while you're in there." I finish with a kiss to first her forehead, then both her cheeks, her nose and finally a love fueled kiss to her wind chapped, warm lips.

I feel a few tears slip between us and decide to just let them fall, knowing Bug doesn't really want me to acknowledge them. I pull back a moment later and then bring my thumb to her just below her eye to wipe away the tears there. I wipe under her other eye with the back of my three fingers.

"Thank you." It's just barely above a whisper and it's a little hoarse but the emotion in her voice almost brings tears to my own eyes. "I really truly appreciate you Finnick Mason Odair." The sincerity in her voice makes my heart flutter, my insides warm and my stomach flip. I wonder if it'll always be like this. My health taking an unhealthy dip for a few seconds every now and then.

'Definitely worth it.' My mind supplied me and I agree with my subconscious. 'She's definitely worth it.' I think to myself as we settle back down to watch the stars. The stars our family are possibly watching at this very moment with us.

Feeling Bug gradually relax into my side and her breath even out I let out a small sigh of relief. She'll be getting at least a little bit of sleep before she heads off the uncertain hell. I blindly reach into my backpack next to us and grab the watch I keep in the side pocket. I wrap it around my free right wrist and see that it's 11:16. Meaning that Bug has around seven and a half hours before I need to wake her up to get downstairs and get ready.

I tug her ever so slightly closer to me and make a vow in my head to be this amazing warrior's protector. Be her rock. Shoulder to cry on. Someone she can always trust and count on. Be the calamity to the chaos I know has yet to come. To be the one to keep her grounded and sane. To give her all that she's given to me and more in the short span of time we've known each other.

To be everything she needs.

"Sweetness." I whisper into my Bug's ear lowly to try to gently raise her from her slumber on top of me. She stirs slightly and it brings a small smile to my lips. I've got maybe fifteen minutes to get her back to Hay and I'd really not like to have one of the worst games to my nerves ever start with Hay bitching at me.

"Kitten. My Bug. Oh sweet blazing Firefly. It's time to wake up Hun." I rub my hands up and down on her arm and small of her back under the several blankets. This line of nicknames bring her to open her eyes blearily and quirk an eyebrow at me.

"Kitten? That's a new one." Her voice is still thick with sleep and absolutely adorable.

"Kitten because you curl up so close to me like a cat. Also the first three letters in your name literally spell out 'Kat'." She makes no protest to the nick name.

In fact she just mumbles a "You make good points there, Skipper," with a nod of her head and shift of her shoulders as if to emphasize her approval of my points made. I just let the 'Skipper' slide right past me. Hopefully she'll forget that one after the arena.

One can hope.

We both sit up after a quick good morning peck of the lips and stretch out our limbs. We gather the backpack and Bug wraps one of the blankets around her shoulders, once again leaving the makeshift bed where it is. I'll probably be up here periodically till Bug is out of that damn arena.

We make our way down to Twelve's floor and see that their escort is in a full tizzy. She looks almost all out of sorts, with her hair on a tilt and one heel on that is. She was currently in Hay's face yelling about something we couldn't really make out. He finger was close to jabbing him in the chest and I'd be concerned for the pink woman if I didn't know the gruff man harbored maybe the smallest infatuation with her. But when she catches sight of Kat her eyes grow to the size of dinner plates and they look both furious and concerned. "And you! Where have you been all this time!? We have a schedule to maintain! I have ten minutes to get you to transport and you've been missing!" She's half stomping, half limping over to us at the kitchen stairs exit, waving the heel in her hand at Bug and I to show she means business.

When she reaches us Bug, I worry that all my hard word to keep blood from being spilled will be for not. Then Bug brings her hands up to catch both of Effie's in hers. It looks like she's holding them with a gentleness that you'd treat a wounded animal with. "I was on the roof with Finnick. I wasn't trying to be late but it does seem he let me sleep a little more than he should have." Bug gives me a side glance and my hand comes to the back of my neck and I scratch at it not knowing what to say. I refuse to be apologetic for letting her sleep. Even if it upsets the eccentric escort.

Bug lets Effie's hands go and reaches up to situate the wig atop the escorts head. "I'm here now though, so let's go ahead and get together to get where we need to be. It would be improper to be late." Bug gives the pinkette a semi forced smile and nods to her heel, indicating she should put her other heel on. The frazzled escort takes a second and looks at her hand holding her shoe. Blinks. Then nods slowly, moving her shoe to her foot.

Once she's on two steady feet again she looks more stable minded. At least a little bit.

Effie turns around and straightens out her pink blazer and walks back out the kitchen to, I guess, get Shitface to the elevators. Hay looks at us from across the room and I hate what his eyes say. I simply nod back to him just as Bug turns around to look up at me.

So short.

"She's just doing her job." There's a nod at the end of her statement. She must think I'm upset at Effie, I've got to work on my poker face around Bug. I don't like worrying her.

I nod and then bring her into my arms, hugging her tightly. I don't ever want to let her go.

And soon I'll have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to keep leaving those comments and if y'all have any suggestions or ideas go ahead and share them. My DM is always open ^.^
> 
> Till the next chapter my Gremlins =)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. Comments and kudos are forever appreciated, as is constructive criticism. Let me hear any and all ideas you have, anything you might want to see, anything you want elaborated or explained better. This work was not Beta read so any and all mistakes are mine.


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